Elegy of a Fallen Hero
by alteris
Summary: With an explosion, all that Danny cherished is lost to him forever. In his grief, he has hung up his tights swearing to never be a hero again. After a change in scenery, will he change his mind? Or will he fall further from the right path. M for safety.
1. The Fall of the Hero

A/N: Hey there party peoples! I know I've been absent from the writing scene for a while, but I felt that I needed to increase my repertoire by looking at other fantastic works of fanfiction. That…..and my muse died for my other stories. Too many OCs, go fig. Anyway, I'm back and I'm giving to all of you my take on a Danny Phantom/Teen Titans crossover fic. Read, enjoy, and MAYBE review if you feel like it.

Disclaimer: I do not own either Danny Phantom or Teen Titans….got it, good.

* * *

"You can't stop me," Dan Phantom chuckled, "I am what you will become!"

"Mom, dad, Jazz, Sam, Tucker…Mr. Lancer," Danny whispered, looking at the proud, but submitted, faces of his friends, family, and teacher, the glow from the boiler glowing brighter as it went critical. With an explosion, all that was wiped from his already grieving mind; all that remained was a thirst for vengeance. "NOOOO!" Danny turned to his future self, eyes glowing with rage.

"The little halfa about to cry," Dan mocked, "Heh, don't make me laugh. You can't beat me." Danny's only answer was to blast him with emerald ectoplasm. Dan blocked it with a grey ghost shield that looked like a pane of glass, chuckling until he saw a crack in it. "_Impossible_," Dan thought, small amounts of worry tainting his thought, "_How was he able to crack my ghost shield? He shouldn't be that powerful!_"

In a low voice, cracked with the raw emotion he was feeling, Danny stated, "My name is Danny Phantom. You killed everyone that mattered to me, prepare to die."

"Quoting semi-obscure movies now? What's next, overused clichés," Dan scoffed. Danny's eyes glowed brighter as he unleashed another ghost ray at his evil future self. Dan sidestepped the emerald beam only to be hit in the chest by a second one.

"You want overused clichés, well here's one: two heads are better than one," Danny snarled as a copy split off to flank his evil counterpart.

"Your lack of wit and tact wound me," Dan sighed as he fired a beam behind him without looking. Danny smirked as he drew a deep breath. "There's no need to bluff; you and I both know you won't gain that ability for another ten years," Dan declared as he charged a ghost ray. His face immediately turned to shock as he unleashed an otherworldly howl laced with ectoplasm from both sides. The ghostly wail in stereo took its toll on all three combatants; the clone faded out of existence when it ran out of energy, the original Danny gradually transformed into his normal self as he kept his howl going, and Dan, having been caught in between the two, was horribly battered, bruised, and completely drained.

Danny, panting for breath, reached behind his back and pulled out the Fenton Thermos, pointing it at his downed foe. "Oh no, he's going to catch me," Dan gasped, fake worry dripping from his words like venom, "I already did what I wanted; my future is secure."

"You have no future," Danny croaked out as the blue beam sucked his future self into the thermos, a dead look in his eyes. "I will never become you, and soon you won't even exist." Danny slowly limped his way to his home to dispose of his opponent.

"That won't be necessary," a voice called out to him. Danny wearily turned around to see a blue ghost wearing a purple cloak and wielding a scepter with a clock perched atop it, Clockwork.

"I think I deserve a little closure about all of this," Danny tried to growl out.

"Time out," Clockwork called out as time froze. He floated up to Danny and took the thermos from him before floating back. "Time in." Time sped back up.

"You could have just asked," Danny sighed, realizing that he wouldn't stand a chance against the ghost, especially in his current state.

"And would you have given it to me," Clockwork countered.

"If my friends and family could be returned to me," Danny replied, glaring as best as he could in his battered state.

"And therein lies the problem," Clockwork frowned, "The time that the sauce boiler exploded was the least likely out of all possible times; it should have exploded two minutes later….exactly five seconds after I arrived."

"So, you're a master of time! You could go back and pull them out," Danny shouted.

"And have them wearing medallions for the rest of their lives," Clockwork sighed, "If they took it off they would go back to where I pulled them from, getting you to try and have me retrieve them again. I have interfered with the timestream enough for your sake."

"After all the shit I go through, I don't get any way to be happy," Danny growled out, his shoulders slumping in defeat, "I'm through doing everything for everybody without so much as a thank you! I'm through being a hero; I quit!" Danny stormed off, resisting the urge to turn into a ghost and fly off.

When Danny disappeared, Vlad stepped out of the shadows, a forlorn look in his eyes. "That could have gone better."

"It went exactly as it needed to," Clockwork replied, turning towards the white-haired billionaire. "I have already told you exactly how all of this happened. Right now, you are the only one that can steer him back along the right path."

"Yes, but I don't think that he will go along with it easily," Vlad responded.

"That is between you two; as I've said, I have interfered with the timestream enough for his sake," Clockwork declared as he vanished into a portal shaped faintly like a clock.

"So it is up to me, his nemesis, to guide him back to being a hero…how ironic," Vlad thought out loud as he walked to where Danny was most likely to be.

* * *

Amity Park, Fenton Works

* * *

Danny sat on his bed, tears streaming from his eyes, holding a picture of his friends and family from a few weeks before. He heard a few soft knocks on his becdroom door. "Come in," he rasped automatically. He didn't look up even as he felt his bed shift as someone sat on it.

"Daniel, are you feeling okay," Vlad inquired softly, only to get a glare. "Sorry, standard question."

"What are you doing here? Come to dance on my father's grave already," Danny growled out. Vlad's shoulders sagged almost imperceptibly as he thought that if it hadn't been for Clockwork, the halfa before him would be right in his assumptions.

"No Daniel-sorry, Danny; I've come to talk about some things with you…about your current situation," Vlad replied, almost with a somber tone of voice.

"I'm not going to live with you and forsake my family, so forget it," Danny barked out.

"And I don't expect you to; after all, that is how all of this started, isn't it," Vlad replied, already knowing what the teen was going to say next.

Danny's eyes widened in shock, surprise etched upon his features at his nemesis's statement. "But how did you know about that?"

"Clockwork showed me my future self whom explained everything to me," the billionaire responded, "He was using the time he thought he had to block any chance that Dan would ever exist. A good, although poorly executed, plan; nobody foresaw what would happen."

"So why are you here then," Danny asked the senior halfa, curiosity throwing enmity out the window.

"Because I would like to give you the chance to start a new life," Vlad explained, "I would like to give you a new place to live, away from the bad memories of the past few days, with a fund for you to draw from until you're eighteen and a legal adult. There are only three things I would ask of you in return."

Danny's eyes narrowed in suspicion, "I'm listening, but no guarantees."

"Granted," Vlad responded, "I would like to be your legal guardian, not your father in and sense of the term, but a pillar for support."

"Okay, that doesn't sound too bad. I know my parents wouldn't object, even though they never knew that you wanted my dad dead," Danny hesitantly agreed.

"I'm sure they wouldn't agree if they knew that particular fact," Vlad admitted, a grimace on his face at Danny's words, "Although my future self did help me come to better terms about that particular accident. It was an easy enough, albeit life destroying, mistake, so I don't hold a grudge against Jack for that anymore."

"You were in school and that accident has made you who you are today Vlad," Danny chuckled weakly, "If it hadn't been for that accident you might not be as well off as you are now."

"Yes, that may be true," Vlad sighed, giving the distraught teen that much, "Which brings me to the next condition, I would like you to finish going to school."

"That…I will agree to easily enough," Danny offered, his view on Vlad having shifted slightly from just being a crazed-up fruit loop to being a tortured soul. Not much better, but a start.

"The last condition is optional, really just me tying up a loose end in the past," Vlad explained, knowing Danny probably wasn't going to like this one.

"Before I agree to this one, let's hear it," Danny sighed, know he probably wasn't going to like this one.

"I was working on cloning you since I had realized recently that you weren't going to turn against your father," Vlad sighed while Danny frowned, "Only one so far shows any signs of stability, but she's missing something….I would like a sample of your mid-morph DNA to complete her."

"Wait, **she**," Danny cried out in surprise. Cue view being shifted right back to crazed-up fruit loop.

"The Y-chromosome didn't copy properly," Vlad offered.

"Okay.....but that doesn't really explain **why** my clone is a girl."

"And two years younger than you are," Vlad sighed.

"**What?**"

"There was a computer glitch in the cloning process....it may be why she is even semi-stable as she is right now," Vlad responded, wincing at Danny's shout.

"And why would I agree?"

"I'll admit that the original intention was selfish," Vlad freely admitted, "But now, I think that you could use some company in the void I won't completely fill." Vlad left the comment about Dan phantom unsaid; it wasn't wanted or needed.

"And why should I help you on this one," Danny stated skeptically.

"Above everything else, I'm a businessman; I always hold my end of a bargain," Vlad replied, straightening out his suit subconsciously.

"If I agree to all of this, where would I be going," Danny inquired, feeling that what Vlad was offering might very well be his best option.

Vlad gave a genuine smile, the plan that he had formed on his way to talk to Danny just starting to come together for him. Step one of his plan to get Danny to return from being the fallen hero he now is completed. He declared with a gentle rub of Danny's hair, "Jump City."


	2. Dawn of the Heroine

A/N: Ah, here we are again, chapter 2; where the real story starts. I'm pleasantly surprised at just how big of a splash that chapter 1 made, far better than my other stories did more than a week after they were first posted…and it's been only four days! Now, the way I have this story set up, when the Dan Phantom incident happened Starfire had been with the Titans for about three weeks. Not long enough for the Titans to have done very much, but long enough for news of them to have spread. But enough of my plot placement ramblings, why not just read the chapter to find out more. Anyway, please read and review, it does help me out more than any of you know.

* * *

"Can't believe that it's been six months since I left Amity Park for good," Danny mused to himself, reflecting on what had happened to him since his departure from his hometown. In the time since he left Amity Park, he had taken to wearing a far darker outfit than when his family was alive. He now wore a black T-shirt with a white skull on the left sleeve, black cargo pants with chains hanging from the pockets, and black sneakers with red shoelaces. He liked to think that Sam would have liked his new ensemble, but he new there was no way he would ever find out. He was currently walking to the middle school from the high school to pick up his 'sister' Danielle.

"Man, why does she need me to drop by to pick her up," Danny grumbled, "It's not like she can't defend herself if she needs to." Danny's phone started ringing, and there were only two people that had his number. "What's going on Danielle," Danny sighed as he answered his phone.

"_Danny, where are you at_," Danielle's upbeat voice answered, "_And how many times do I have to tell you, it's Dani, with an I!_"

"I'm downtown, by the Midnight Latte," Danny responded, "Why do you ask?"

"_Well, come to Pizza Palace_," Dani commanded excitedly, "_The Teen Titans are fighting some villains and it looks like they could use some help._"

"How many times do I have to tell you, Danielle, I am **not** interested in playing the hero anymore," Danny hissed as he hung up on her.

* * *

Jump City, Pizza Palace

* * *

"I can't believe him! Well, if he's not going to help, then I will," Dani huffed as she slipped into an alley, out of sight. She was wearing an open faded blue hoodie over a white shirt that showed her midriff, denim kangaroo pants and white tennis shoes. "Going ghost," Dani whispered, summoning a white ring around her waist that immediately began to separate, going up and down her body while changing her appearance. As the transformation finished, she now had snow-white hair, glowing green eyes, and a better tan. Her outfit now consisted of a black tube top, white fingerless gloves that reached her mid-bicep, black skirt that reached almost to her knees, white boots that reached mid calf, and a simple white belt.

Dani turned invisible and silently floated over to where the fight was taking place. "You know what you call someone with a rocket on his back," Mammoth asked Cyborg as they had their hands locked together.

"Duped," Gizmo stated as he slapped a rocket onto Cyborg's back. With a shout of surprise, the rocket took him in a random direction in the air.

"Cyborg," Starfire shouted worriedly. She quickly flew off after her airborne friend. The rocket on his back further complicated her attempts to rescue her cybernetic friend by changing directions every time she would get near him.

"Titans, GO," Robin shouted as Raven and Beast Boy got up from where they had been launched to earlier. He threw a few birdarangs at the three villains only for them to be shot down by the miniature laser cannon now peeking over Gizmo's shoulder.

"Why don't you pick on someone that can fire back," Dani cried out as she revealed herself floating behind the three teenaged villains.

"And who are you supposed to be," Jinx sneered, her hands crackling with pink energy.

Green balls of energy formed in Dani's hands, "Name's Spectre, and you're going down!" She brought her hands up and fired ghost rays at the three.

Robin paused for a moment, surprised that some new hero had popped up literally out of nowhere to help his team. "Titans, let's help her out," he shouted as he threw a few more birdarangs at the now distracted Gizmo. One of them sliced clean through the piece of metal holding up his laser cannon, causing the now useless piece of tech to fall to the ground.

"Those scum-lickers took out my cannon," Gizmo cried out as he brought his mechanical spider legs to bear.

"Come back here pipsqueak," Mammoth roared as he punched Dani, only for his fist to pass right through her.

"You wouldn't hit a girl." Swish. "You couldn't hit a girl." Swish. "You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn!"

"RAAARGH,' Mammoth yelled, swinging his fists blindly, trying to hit Dani…only to take a charging green rhino to the rear.

Jinx threw her arms out, pink arcs of energy flying out and hitting the buildings, street lamps, and a few cars. When the surroundings started to fall apart, apparently from signs of rot and decay that hadn't been there moment's earlier, Raven had to use her powers to keep everything standing so the civilians could get out of the way. Sweat was beading on her brow from the mental strain of having to hold up several tons of weight in multiple directions. Jinx wasn't going to stop at that. "Your luck just ran out," she chirped as she sent her pink hex bolts at the dark titan. Raven gasped as they hit her, causing her hold on the rubble to vanish as her hold on the rubble fizzled with her disrupted concentration, the damaged buildings falling on the civilians that were left.

"No," Raven shouted as she surrounded the pedestrians in a dome of her obsidian power. She then enveloped some of the rubble in her ebon energy and made it fly towards Jinx, making her back flip out of the way. When the rubble stopped falling, Raven made the dome of her energy levitate out of the rubble, taking the civilians to safety. "Looks like my luck's changing," Raven quipped in a monotone as she sent more rubble flying at the unlucky villain.

Robin extended his bo staff, trying to strike Gizmo. Gizmo reared back on the back to of his mechanical legs, trying to strike the boy wonder with the other legs. "You're going down," Robin stated plainly.

"Like you can stop me crud-muncher," Gizmo sneered as she struck at Robin's staff, breaking it. Robin jumped back, drawing two birdarangs and throwing them at the tiny terror. He managed to sever the back two legs, forcing the midget to stand on his own legs. Unfortunately for Robin, this only increased his range while somewhat limiting his mobility. "Hey scuz bucket, try this on for size," Gizmo jeered as his remaining mechanical legs opened, revealing giant glowing blasters. Robin's eyes widened as the cannons fired; destroying the ground he was standing on and dropping him to the sewers below where he was swept away by the current.

"Robin the two remaining Titans and Dani cried out, giving Mammoth the opening he needed to do a spinning backhand to both Dani and Beast Boy, sending them flying. Jinx then fired more hex bolts at the ground, opening the hole wider to send a startled Raven to similar watery fate that befell her leader.

"We're done here," Gizmo sneered as his legs retracted, allowing his glider wings to be revealed. The three villains made a quick exit as police sirens were heard in the background, and getting louder.

Dani floated out of the dumpster that she had landed in and floated over to the hole in the wall that marked where Beast Boy had fallen. "Are you alright," she asked when she heard the emerald titan groan, earning her a half-hearted glare. "Sorry, standard question."

Beast Boy grunted as he got up. "Thanks for trying to help. Let's head to the tower, that's where everybody's probably heading."

"Titan's Tower," Dani squealed in delight, "I've always wanted to go there to meet you guys! I can get us there really fast!"

"Oh no, a super-powered fangirl," Beast Boy groaned, "And I thought the regular kind were bad enough!" Dani ignored that comment and grabbed him, flying to Titan's Tower as fast as she could.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Approximately One and a Half Minutes Later

* * *

Beast Boy was leaning on Dani heavily as they entered Titan's Tower, his skin greener than usual, while she was looking at the front hall in awe. "Yo, BB! What happened out there after that small freak strapped me with a rocket? I was halfway to Gotham by the time that Starfire got it off me."

Starfire, however, looked at the two that had just entered the tower and then looked behind them before centering her gaze on the changeling. "Beast Boy, who is this girl and where are Robin and Raven," the Tamaranean questioned.

"I'm Spectre," Dani replied in a low tone as both she and the emerald titan suddenly found the floor very interesting.

"Beast Boy, Spectre, where are our friends," Starfire asked again, this time more anxiously.

Cyborg slammed his fist into the wall, "Man, I should have been there! I should have known they were trying to take me out of the fight!"

"It's alright Cyborg," Dani stated as soothingly as she could manage, "When I showed up to help, it looked like they were setting up for something. We split them up and that green midget dumped Robin into the sewers. While we were surprised, the Neanderthal slammed me and Beast Boy into the scenery and that pink-haired girl blasted the ground, sending Raven to join Robin. There was nothing we could do to stop them from getting away."

"I still should have been there," Cyborg grumbled.

"Our friends are strong," Starfire declared, "Surely they will return to us unharmed."

Knock. Knock. BOOM! The giant blast doors to Titan's Tower fell right before the four teens, revealing three silhouettes they didn't want to see again so soon. Nice place," Mammoth declared.

"We'll take it," Gizmo sneered opening fire with his new laser blaster.

"Titans, take 'em out," Cyborg shouted as he fired his sonic cannon at the midget, drawing him away from the others.

Beast Boy transformed into a cheetah, running deeper into the tower as fast as his injuries would let him, being chased by Jinx. "Here kitty, kitty, kitty."

"Man, of course I get stuck with the two girls," Mammoth groaned as he waited for them to come to him.

"My gender says nothing about my strength," Starfire growled as she floated off of the ground, her eyes glowing with emerald energy.

"You got a cheap shot last time, it won't happen again," Dani declared angrily as she floated off of the ground as well.

"If you're not gonna come at me," Mammoth smirked as he charged them, "Then I'm gonna come at you!" Mammoth hit Starfire in the gut, sending her flying through the wall, earning only a small grunt of pain. Dani responded by blasting the gargantuan teen with her ghost ray. Mammoth braced himself against the impact and saw sent sliding back a few feet, grinning. "Is that the best you got," he sneered.

"Unfortunately," Dani gulped as Starfire climbed out of the rubble her impromptu flight had made.

"You will wish you hadn't done that," Starfire growled as she threw starbolts at Mammoth, who just stood there with his arms covering his face, sliding back inch by inch. Dani, meanwhile, flew around behind the villain, backing up to gain more distance. She then flew straight at him, her hands glowing with ectoplasm, at 112 miles per hour.

"Starfire," Dani shouted as she hit Mammoth, sending him lurching forward a few feet…into Starfire's waiting fist. While her attack wasn't as fast as Dani's had been, it made up for it in strength. Mammoth was sent flying towards Dani, who turned intangible, letting the large teen hit the floor behind her with a loud thud.

"Perhaps we have won," Starfire inquired of her smiling new friend, not noticing Mammoth getting back up and rearing back one of his large fists.

"Think again," Mammoth growled out as he hit Dani with enough force to knock her through a wall and out into the bay, painfully unconscious. As she hit the water, the white rings flew over her body, transforming her back into her normal self.

"Spectre," Starfire gasped shortly before joining her ally in the bay via another punch, dazed but not unconscious. Beast Boy and Cyborg, minus one right arm, quickly joined them in the choppy waters of the bay.

The three villains stood at the shore of the rocky island, looking down at the heroes. "You're all washed up," Mammoth sneered.

"Let me help with that," Jinx offered in a sing-song voice as she sent a wave of her pink energy into the water, creating a wave that washed the four teens onto the mainland.

It was mere minutes later that Dani woke with a groan, "Uhn, what hit me?"

"Who are you and why do you sound like friend Spectre," Starfire asked, her curiosity piqued as to the identity of the unknown girl before her.

"Uh, Starfire, I think that is Spectre…just out of costume," Beast Boy guessed, unsure what to think.

"Huh," Dani said oh so intelligently as her hair fell in front of her face, revealing to her that she has changed back. "I guess I have some explaining to do," she laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head.

"Not all of us can have secret identities," Cyborg sighed as he started repairing himself. "Yours is just very well hidden."

"Hey, look at the good news," Beast Boy chuckled, trying to ease up the tension, "At least we don't need to take a bath."

"Not now BB," Cyborg sighed, "We just kicked out of our home and, in case you hadn't noticed, I just became left-handed! It's over!"

"Maybe not," a familiar voice called from behind them. They looked to the voice to see Raven and Robin on the top of the hill, their capes billowing in the breeze.

"Robin," Starfire shouted, flying up to meet with the lost titans.

"Here, let me help," Raven stated as she floated down, her hands glowing blue as she healed Beast Boy and Dani's wounds.

"Heheh, thanks," Beast Boy said.

"But you are right; you do have a little explaining to do…" Robin declared, trailing off at the end, leading the black-haired girl before him into telling him her name.

"Dani Fenton, with an I." She let the white rings float over her body again, transforming her into her alter ego. "Like this I go by Spectre."

"Where did you get your powers, if you don't mind me asking," Robin inquired, his curiosity piqued. "From what I have seen, you can go invisible, turn intangible, and fire energy from your hands."

"And she can fly too," Starfire chipped in.

"Yeah, one minute you can be one place and poof, you just vanish, like a ghost or something," Beast Boy piped up.

"I got them in a lab," Dani muttered, somewhat nervously, "I'm what's called a halfa." Raven stiffened at the title.

"A half a what," Beast Boy asked further, confused by her words.

"Half a human, half a ghost," Raven responded her emerald teammate's question, "But the only halfa I know about is male, and he disappeared six months ago." Her eyebrows narrowed in suspicion, wondering if there was any relation to the halfa that had been terrorizing that town in Illinois, Amity Park if she remembered correctly.

"That's about when I got mine," Dani declared, "I'm trying to get him to teach me how to use his ghostly wail, but he won't teach me, the jerk." Robin's eyemask narrowed joined Raven's at the slip.

"How are you half a ghost, that doesn't sound possible," Cyborg inquired as he continued to make repairs to his damaged systems.

"Ectoplasm bonded to my DNA," Dani replied, getting a little nervous at how invasive the questions were getting.

"What do you mean by 'he won't teach you,'" Robin asked the white haired girl before him.

"I don't want to talk about it, it's his secret to tell," Dani responded, "And he kind of gave up on being a hero."

"What do you mean 'gave up on being a hero?' Inviso-Bill was a menace; he tried to kidnap the mayor of Amity Park in broad daylight! Doesn't seem very heroic to me," Robin inquired further, drawing closer to Dani.

"Ever think that in a town full of ghosts that he could have been framed," Dani retorted, her face drawing closer to the face of the leader of the Titans.

"Yo, let's focus on something else for right now, like getting back the tower," Cyborg shouted, positioning himself in between the two teen. "We'll ask you more questions later, but for right now we can use all the help we can get."

"If the Boy Wonder can't tell when someone has been framed, it's not my problem that he's too pig-headed to see past his eyemask," Dani quipped, obviously furious at the teen before her.

"He was caught on tape, it doesn't get any more cut and dry than that," Robin retorted.

"Ever thought of the possibility of the mayor being over-shadowed king of hair-gel," Dani sniped back.

"Please friends, do not do the fighting over this matter," Starfire pleaded, picking up the two teens by the backs of their collars, "We must concentrate on liberating our home from the villainous adolescents that have absconded with it, and ejected us from its halls."

"…say what," Dani muttered, scratching the top of her head in confusion.

"You get used to it," Cyborg replied, "Now I hope you got a plan of attack so we can get our tower back Robin, 'cause we sure as hell don't have one."

Robin decided to ease off of the questions. His friends were right, taking back their tower was important; grilling Spectre for information could wait. He'd let her actions in the coming hours speak for themselves. "Yes, and we could use your help Spectre," Robin stated.

"You need my help," Dani gasped in surprise, a fangirl's glint in her eye, hidden very carefully behind her animosity towards Robin at the moment.

"It could make things go easier," Robin replied, suppressing a shudder at the look in her eye.

"And you'll want me to answer your questions afterwards, I'm guessing," Dani responded.

"Yes, it would make things go a lot easier if we end up working with you in the future," Robin replied.

"Alright, but if I think that you are getting too personal with your questions, I won't answer them," Dani responded in kind.

Robin sighed at that. He guessed that would have to do, he understood the need for secrets to be kept better than any of his friends, his mentor taken into consideration. "Deal, so would you be willing to help us," Robin asked, offering his hand to the halfa before him for a handshake.

"Alright, count me in," Dani smiled as she shook Robin's hand. The other titan's all let out a sigh in relief at that. Starfire put the two teens to the ground and looked at the Boy Wonder expectantly.

"Great, now here's the plan," Robin responded, a small smile creeping onto his face.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Three Hours Later

* * *

"Look at the crud these losers call music," Gizmo jeered loudly, throwing CDs behind his back.

"You think that's bad, take a look at their food," Mammoth scoffed, while licking said furry blue food. One invisible Dani turned green at the sight.

"Pfft, you think that's bad," Jinx snorted, "Then you haven't seen their fashion sense. Does she have anything that's not blue?"

"_Time to start phase one_," Dani sighed mentally, noticing the camera at the end of one of Cyborg's fingers scanning the room. She caught one of the CDs that Gizmo was throwing and threw it at Mammoth as he sucked the meat off of a chicken leg.

"Hey, watch where you're throwing those things," Mammoth shouted, turning to Gizmo as another disc's course was altered, hitting him in the face.

"Why don't you make me snot brain," Gizmo challenged in a sing-song voice as he threw another one straight at Mammoth.

"Will you two just shut up," Jinx ordered. The two turned to look at each other, nodding in silent agreement. They then proceeded to throw CDs and leftovers at the unlucky girl. Only Dani noticed as Cyborg's arm crawled along the floor and activated the console. The fighting stopped as the alarm started blaring.

"What the hell's going on," Gizmo shouted as he looked at the console. The chair moved slowly, revealing Cyborg's arm resting on the right arm, fingers rapping a steady rhythm. "AHHHH," the tiny terror shouted in surprise at the site of the disembodied limb moving of its own accord. Cables came out of the estranged arm, entangling the foul-mouthed midget, before small rockets came out of the arm's side panel and took both arm and screaming tech-junkie on a ride through the vents.

"Huh," Jinx grunted before gasping as ebon energy took her through the floor. Mammoth scratched his head in confusion before a starbolt and a beam of emerald ectoplasm knocked him through the door.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Roof

* * *

"AHHH," Gizmo yelled as he flew through the vent on the roof, joining his dazed allies. Cyborg's arm detached itself from the bald villain and went over to its smirking owner.

"Titans, GO," Robin shouted, the teens following his plan. Cyborg and Robin made a beeline to Gizmo; Starfire and Dani flew at Mammoth; and Raven and Beast Boy chased after Jinx.

"Heh, you two again? Didn't you learn your lesson last time," Mammoth snorted derisively as he charged at the two girls.

"Yeah, we learned that you really are as dumb as you look," Dani retorted.

"I'm sorry that we must do this, but we must ask you to please leave out home," Starfire stated, her eyes and hands glowing a bright green.

"Pfft, as if," Mammoth snorted as he threw a punch at the Tamaranean's face. She flew up in the air to dodge his strike as the now revealed Dani hit him with a fully charged ghost ray. The attack sent him sliding back a few feet to be greeted by a barrage of starbolts. Dani flew around him, invisible, to prepare for another high velocity strike. "Is that the best you can do," he roared as he threw a large piece of the ceiling at Starfire.

"No, but I do believe that I performed the distraction very well," Starfire replied cheerily as she floated down to the ground, avoiding the airborne piece of roof.

"Huh, Mammoth grunted, scratching his head in confusion until he got slammed in Starfire's direction by Dani.

"Some boys never learn," Dani laughed as she regained visibility, already charging another ghost ray.

"Indeed," Starfire agreed as she slammed a fist into the large teen's gut, sending him rocketing towards Dani and her ghost ray.

"Urgh," Mammoth grunted as he was sent flying high into the air, only to get slammed back into the tower by Starfire's far more powerful starbolt. He laid there, limp and burned, in a smoking crater.

"We did it," Dani cheered, floating up to Starfire to receive a death hug.

"Yes, we were successful in the beating down of the large villain," Starfire assented as she stumbled in midair due to the loss of her companion in her hug.

"Jeez Starfire," Dani panted, "I kinda need to breathe you know." Starfire just grinned, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment.

"You scuz bags really think you can beat me," Gizmo scoffed as his mechanical legs extended from his tech pack. "I've beaten you losers before, and I'll do it again!" The legs opened up, revealing the large blasters again.

"That was before little man," Cyborg shouted, his arm transforming into his sonic cannon, "Now we're working together!"

"Doesn't mean anything, cludgehead," Gizmo sneered as he fired his laser cannons. Robin and Cyborg quickly dodged the blasts being fired by the diminutive cackling villain.

"Enough of this," Robin growled out, pulling three discs out of his utility belt, "It's time to put you on ice." He threw the discs at Gizmo's feet; the explosion released a freezing gas that froze Gizmo's firing legs.

"Looks like your tech just froze up," Cyborg snorted as he fired a blast, shattering the legs, "Good thing I'm just getting warmed up."

"You pit sniffing snot-for-brains, I'm not done yet," Gizmo cried out as he turned to Cyborg, his smaller laser cannon at the ready.

"Looks to me like your system's about to crash," Robin smirked as he slapped a scrambling device on the pack on Gizmo's back.

"Ahh! My tech," Gizmo screeched as parts started falling out of his pack, before the jetpack function activated, sending him flying face-first into a steel beam.

"That had to hurt," Robin winced.

"Well, that's what he gets for taking on the Teen Titans," Cyborg shouted, slapping Robin on the back. "BOOYAH!"

Jinx led Beast Boy and Raven into the scaffolding that had been built to turn the T into an H. "Ooh, bad luck choosing me as your opponent."

"Your unlucky puns are starting to get annoying," Raven declared as she coated some loose items in her black energy, "Azerath Metrion Zinthos!" The items went flying at Jinz, who just hit them with her hex bolts, making them fall apart before they got near her.

"Bonzai," Beast Boy shouted as he turned into a monkey, landing on Jinx's face. She screamed slightly as she struggled to get the green changeling off of her. Unfortunately for her, she was blasting the scenery with waves of pink entropic energy while a smirking Raven erected a dome of her own obsidian energy around herself.

A few moments later, Beast Boy jumped off of the young villainess, shifting back into his elfin form as he ran away, Raven giving chase. "Your luck just ran out," the emerald titan called behind him, Raven glared in annoyance at her teammate's unwelcome joke.

"Huh," Jinx grunted in confusion before she heard the sound of metal groaning. She looked around wondering what was going on before panic crossed her face. She started running as the scaffolding collapsed, flickers of her remaining hexes crackling at the joints before they buckled. Just as she exited the hexagonal hole in the wall, a steel beam that had collapsed swung down and hit her in the back, sending her flying and writhing in pain. Jinx was caught roughly by Robin, whom brought her face up to his. "Jeez, this is the last time I take a job from Slade," the pink-haired witch groaned in pain.

"Who is Slade," Robin growled out, trying to pump the villainess for information.

"How should I know; he just hired us and told us to defeat you," Jinx replied weakly as she lost consciousness. Robin dropped her onto her fallen allies.

"I'll call for pick-up," Robin stated as he turned to walk off.

"Already done man," Cyborg called after him, making him pause in mid-step.

"Good, then that means that we can get right to the questions," Robin declared as he turned around to face Dani.

Dani held up her hand in resignation, "Alright, I did agree to answer your questions."

"Who is Inviso-Bill," Robin questioned brazenly.

"I'm not going to tell you his secret identity, Robin. It's his secret to tell. Besides, he hates the name the media gave him," Dani replied curtly, "He preferred Danny Phantom."

Robin nodded, "Fair enough, I can't exactly force you to reveal his identity if he's fallen this far off of the radar."

"What's your connection to him," Raven inquired, "You mentioned earlier that he won't teach you how to use one of his moves."

"I'm a clone created by his former nemesis," Dani replied, "The Y-chromosome didn't copy offer right." Cyborg lowered his hand as his unasked question was answered.

"What does Phantom intend to do here in Jump City," Robin inquired, pieces starting to fall together in his mind.

"As I already told you, he got tired of being called a villain when he was saving Amity Park from all of the ghosts that were attacking it. He just wants to live his life like a normal member of society now. You know, go to school, get a job, write dark poetry, that sort of thing."

"He writes dark poetry," Raven inquired, her eyebrow raising in interest.

"He went goth after his parents and family were incinerated in front of him by his future self," Dani replied, "That's also when he gave up on being a hero." Robin snorted at the hero statement, but kept his comment to himself.

"Wait, you don't mean the Nasty Burger incident, do you," Cyborg asked, "That fight was televised and man was it intense."

"If it was his future self that did that, wouldn't that mean that he would have to have been a murderer in the future," Raven inquired.

"I don't remember all the specifics, but he said that shouldn't happen as long as he doesn't take the actions that lead him down that path in the first place, which he hasn't," Dani replied, rubbing the back of her head.

"You said earlier that he was framed," Robin inquired, "Would you like to explain how?"

"You're the detective her Robin, why not look at the tapes and news reports from that time frame," Dani responded, smirking at the furious look on his face.

"As far as I'm concerned, you're a good kid," Cyborg declared, patting the halfa on the back, "I for one wouldn't mind if you became a member of our team."

"Yes friend Spectre, I would very much like for you to come join us here at the tower and do the heroic acts with us," Starfire cheered.

"You did good work today Spectre," Robin offered grudgingly, reaching behind his back and pulling out a communicator, "I think that we would all like for you to join the team."

Dani reached for the communicator, but she stopped short of grabbing it. At Robin's confused face, she decided to explain her hesitation. "I don't know if I'd be able to join you guys here at the tower, I have an older brother to keep an eye on and I have school in the morning."

"Dude, that's gotta be rough, being a hero and going to school at the same time," Beast Boy groaned in sympathy.

"Yeah, but my brother had it worse before we moved here," Danni replied, not noticing the slip that Robin and Raven both narrowed their eyes slightly at.

"I thought you said that you're a clone," Raven stated.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that I can't call the closest thing I have to family my brother, does it," Dani smiled.

Robin put the communicator in Dani's hand, deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt; she had just gone out of her way to help them out after all. "Don't worry about it too much Spectre, we'll try not to call you until after school gets out unless it's an emergency."

Dani smiled at that, "Thanks Robin, this means a lot to me."

"Just one more question," Robin asked, "Could you give a hint as to how Phantom was framed, it would help to clear his name in the long run if he was framed."

Dani thought about it for a second before nodding, "Sure, look up possessions. Phantom refers to it as overshadowing when he does it." With a nod from the Boy Wonder Dani flew off into the nighttime sky, heading home where she hoped that Danny hadn't gotten too worried about her.

"Raven," Robin turned to his cloaked teammate, not needing to ask the question on his mind.

"Malicious ghosts and demons can possess people and objects in order to wreak havoc," Raven replied with a shrug, "But you can't normally possess a ghost like that."

"Maybe you don't have to," Robin thought out loud, more and more pieces of the puzzle falling into place. "I'm going to check that tape again, after I see what I can find out about Slade." Robin promptly went inside to go to his crime files computer.

"Man, I hate it when he gets like this," Cyborg groaned as he and the rest of the Titans waited for the police to come pick up the meta-humans that lay unconscious at their feet, "Now he's gonna get obsessed with two cases."

"Hopefully our friends will be all right," Starfire sighed, watching as an armored police helicopter came closer to their beloved tower.

* * *

Jump City, Fenton Apartment

* * *

"Danny, I'm home," Dani called as she entered the apartment, wearing her normal clothes. She kicked off her shoes by the door before flopping on the sectional sofa that Danny was sitting on so she could watch TV.

"Noticed you helping out the Titans earlier Danielle," Danny stated, keeping his voice neutral.

"Yeah, that got really messy there for a bit, but we eventually won," Dani smiled.

"You know I don't want to see you hurt by being a hero Danielle," Danny declared, turning towards his 'sister,' "The only thing people like more than praising a hero is tearing one down."

"Amity's different from Jump City, Danny," the younger halfa snorted, "Maybe you should give these people a chance."

"No, I'm not going to be a hero again Danielle, and neither should you," Danny retorted as he got up and went to his room.

"_Danny, I just hope that you don't close yourself off from everything you have now because of what happened to you n the past_," Dani thought to herself as she watched the news reports of the fights earlier today.

* * *

Unknown Location

* * *

"I'm sorry for their failure; after their retrieval, their punishment will be severe," a woman in a business suit declared.

"There'll be no need for that," a man in the shadows with only his left eye showing stated, "They served their purpose as messengers and revealed a new player on the field. You will get the funds along with a bonus for the extra work they did." On a single screen in the room Spectre was shown fighting Mammoth while on another screen Robin was shown interrogating Jinx. "Yes, they did more than was expected of them, far more."


	3. A Kindred Spirit

A/N: Hey there party people! I'm here to give you the next installment of Elegy of a Fallen Hero! There's one matter I'd like to address, even though I already responded to the review asking this question, I figure that more of you might be confused about this one matter. The question is: Who the h*** is your main character! All right, that's not a direct quote, but I'm sure that more than a few of you are wondering this yourselves. The answer is simple: Dani Fenton, aka Spectre. You make look at the summary and the first chapter and be confused about this; well my reasoning is also very simple. If I had Danny as the main character when he is going out of his way to try to be normal, this fic wouldn't be very interesting. So having Dani trying to get Danny to realize why he liked being a hero in the first place, or just pestering him about it and hoping to get it through his thick skull, is a far more entertaining prospect. Especially with the plot twist I have planned in a few more chapters. Wow, this has to be my longest Author's Notes ever. On that note, please read and review.

* * *

Unknown Location

* * *

A robed figure wreathed in darkness looked at the figure standing before him. Behind him was a video recording taken from the fight on the roof of Titan's Tower. From a poor camera angle, it was apparent that it was the conversation that happened afterwards, but that is the part that interested the robed figure the most. The figure was sitting behind a desk, only his silhouette visible to the small teen before him, Gizmo if he remembered correctly.

"Why was I called her sir," the tiny terror inquired with trepidation apparent in his voice. The robed figure grinned maliciously, causing the technological genius to take a step back unconsciously; ah, it was always good to see proper respect from minions.

"I have called you here for, let's say an assignment," the robed figure replied, sitting up in his seat and revealing his hair to be swept back into twin points.

"W-what is it, sir," Gizmo asked further, trembling with fear.

"I wish you to plan the…enrollment, of a certain individual," the figure smirked, possibilities and plans already forming in his head, "You will have to come up with the funds yourself, and I will give you a list of contacts that could potentially help you if you choose to use them."

"Who am I after, sir," Gizmo asked the robed figure, his fear dissipating as his protection from the figure ire's became more apparent. The figure smirked at his minion's sudden backbone.

"You're to capture a certain Phantom."

The figure had to hold back his laughter when he saw that fear return in full force.

* * *

Jump City, Fenton Apartment, Nighttime

* * *

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please with a cherry, chocolate syrup, and sprinkles on top?"

"No," Danny sighed in exasperation, "I'm not going to train you."

"Oh c'mon Danny! I could really use some advice from someone as skilled as you," Dani pleaded with her sitting brother.

"What part of no don't you understand Danielle," Danny scowled, twisting around on the sofa to try and watch a documentary on the history of astronauts. "_She makes one hell of a better door than a window. The least she could do is wait until after my show to hassle me!_"

"But Danny," Dani pressed onwards, this time with pouting, "You're the only person I can really turn to on this! You know these powers inside and out! Would you be able to live with yourself if I got killed because you wouldn't teach me how to do something that is second-nature to you?"

"Danielle," Danny growled, visions of his family exploding appearing before his eyes unbidden, "Mind games are not going to work on me." He hid a victorious smirk at the shocked looked on Dani's face, making it obvious that she had been figured out way faster than she thought would have happened. "Did you forget I had a wannabe psychologist for an older sister; who did you think she tried all of her new techniques out on first?"

Dani turned away at her brother's admission, upset that her ploy had backfired. Her eyes roamed over the decorated walls looking for some sort of inspiration to talk Danny into helping her out. Trying to get the second part of Vlad's plan put into action was harder than she thought it would be! When a signed copy of Ninja Gaiden 2 entered her field of vision, inspiration struck like a pouncing cat. She slowly turned to the other halfa in the room, a wide grin and a mischievous twinkle in her eye painting a worrying picture for Danny.

"Why are you looking at me like th-" Danny inquiry was cut off suddenly as his honed, albeit slightly dulled, battle instincts flared to life, allowing him to dodge the incoming ghost ray by a slim margin.

"One way or another, I'm going to get some training in," Dani declared, the grin still on her face and her hand starting to glow again, causing a small tremor of fear to slide down Danny's spine. He then sighed in defeat, silently praying to Sam and Tucker that they would forgive him for breaking his vow to never use his powers, to never get involved in any acts of heroism again.

"Fine," Danny sighed in resignation as the white rings floated over his body, a tingling yet comforting feeling that he had almost forgotten crawling over his body in tune with his transformation. "But realize, I'm not going to take it easy on you, and neither will your enemies."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Dani smiled in earnest as the white rings floated over her own body, heralding her transformation into her alter-ego as well. Danny eyes widened as he suddenly got an idea; then his expression shifted into a predatory grin that gave Dani goosebumps. She suddenly got the sneaking suspicion that this might not have been a very good idea.

"How about I fight you like I would fight Plasmius," Danny stated, his grin widening as he saw Dani gulp in sudden realization. He nodded up to the ceiling, indicating where their 'training' exercise would take place. Dani nodded and they flew through the roof of the apartment, taking to the night sky over Jump City. She would have gasped at the breathtaking sight of the city at night, the skyscrapers ablaze with thousands of lights and the innumerable headlights of cars driving along the city streets. She could even see the Titan's Tower glowing in the middle of the bay, indicating that her new friends were still awake. She would have gasped, that is, if I sudden thought hadn't been flitting through her mind.

"_This probably wasn't the brightest idea I've ever had_," Dani thought in a mild panic as Danny's expression settled into a firm determination that had only been described to her before.

"Let's begin, Spectre," Danny commanded, his hands blazing with twin emerald orbs.

"_Definitely not the best plan I've ever had_," Dani gulped as she brought her own ghost rays to bear.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower

* * *

"You're going down little man," Cyborg shouted, perhaps a bit on the loud side, considering he was pressing buttons on his game controller frantically…and the 'little man' he was talking to was sitting two feet to his left, doing the same.

"No way dude! There's no way you're going to pass me," Beast Boy crowed, his car on the screen keeping ahead of his cybernetic friend's. This was Burnout, **nobody** beat him at this game. He made his car do a quick turn around a corner, only to get broadsided by Cyborg's car and sent careening into the opposite wall. By the time that he recovered from his impromptu crash, the titanium titan had pulled into first place, and he'd fallen into sixth. "Dude! No fair, I call a do-over!"

"There aren't any do-over's grass stain," Cyborg cried out happily, "Feel free to try a rematch; we both know it'll end the same way! You eating my dust!" His mood was instantly killed as the screen flashed red and the alarm went off. "Aw man! Just when I was about to win too!"

"Haha, it doesn't count if it the match never got finished Cy, you know the rules," Beast Boy crowed out, happy that he didn't lose the game. It looked like his perfect record was still intact.

That was about when Robin decided to enter the common room, Starfire just behind him and Raven coming out of the floor in a pool of her ebon powers. He went over to the computer and pressed a few buttons quickly. "Titans, there's a fight over the upscale residential district. Two teens using green energy rays….looks like one of them is Spectre."

"And she didn't call us to help her out, lame dude," Beast Boy scowled.

Robin's eyes suddenly shot open, surprise etched onto his features, "She's fighting Phantom, Beast Boy! Titans, move out," Robin commanded, feeling the very urgent need to help her out. If Phantom were even half as powerful as his last recorded fight showed him to be, she was way out of her league. Within moments, they exited the common room, everything else forgotten but helping their friend. Starfire was carrying Robin and Beast Boy, now as a pterodactyl, was lofting Cyborg through the air while Raven flew after them. Robin just hoped that they could get there in time to help Spectre and maybe capture Phantom for questioning. It had been two days and he still hadn't made any headway into proving his innocence.

As far as he was concerned, this was a fight against a maniac and a criminal.

* * *

Jump City, Above the City

* * *

Dani quickly flew higher and to the left to avoid the salvo of ghost rays that the other halfa was firing. The past five minutes had been spent just trying to avoid Danny's attacks, not even getting the opportunity to fire more than a dozen blasts of her own. It hadn't taken her long to figure out just how outclassed she was and just how bad of an idea this had been. "Come on _Spectre_, surely this isn't the best you can do," Danny jeered, "I was having to do this against Skulker early on, and I still beat him. Surely you can do better than him!"

"Well excuse me for not giving you a workout," Dani shouted in response, diving to the side to avoid another emerald beam, "I haven't even figured out how to use a ghost shield yet!"

"You think that your enemies are going to take it easy on you just because you haven't figured out how to use a new move yet," Danny inquired, firing off more rays at the younger halfa, "All the enemy is going to care about is ripping you limb from limb!"

"_Talk about David and Goliath stories_," Dani thought, not being given enough time to even use witty banter against her brother, "_At least David got a chance to use his sling!_" Then Dani saw an opening between the bursts of light and decided to take it. She charged right at Danny, a green orb in her hand. She flew at him as fast as she could, trying to limit his chances of dodging. Danny just shook his head and sighed at her tactic. When she was within two feet of the older halfa, she brought her fist forward in an attempt to add her strength to the blast that would follow soon afterward. Her efforts were in vain, however, as she bounced off of a ghost shield her counterpart made to thwart her plan.

Danny's face gained a neutral expression as he watched Dani recover from her headlong charge. "A bull rush only works if your opponent is dazed or distracted," the elder halfa stated as he blast her at point blank range, sending her careening dozens of feet in pain. "Have you had enough," Danny inquired, an undercurrent of concern lacing his voice.

"RAAAAAH," Dani howled, her face contorted into an expression of unearthly rage. She quickly charged up another ghost ray, but this time the ray was white and looked like it was trying to fall apart in her hand. She fired her pearlescent beam at Danny, no thoughts in her mind besides the feeling that she must win, that she had to prove that she was a worthy opponent to her elder.

Danny quirked an eyebrow at the color of the attack, but dashed the surprise just as quickly as he erected a ghost shield to stop her assault. Surprise quickly returned to his face as the attack hit his barrier and exploded, destroying his shield and sending him flying from the force of the blast. "Jeez, that wasn't a ghost ray; it was some kind of spirit bomb," Danny shouted as shock became etched on his face, seeing another of those glowing white beams heading his way already. He forwent the shield this time, already seeing just how effective it was against this attack, and dived quickly to the right in an attempt to evade the attack.

"RAAH," Dani shouted, feeling more anger than she ever had in her life. She charged up one of her white attacks in each hand and sent them both flying at her brother. He yelped in surprise, this time descending to avoid the blast.

"Hell hath no fury is an understatement," the elder halfa cried out, this time using a ghost ray in an attempt to counter his sister's 'spirit bomb.' His eyes widened in shock as he saw his tactic work, causing the pearlescent beam to explode spectacularly a baker's dozen yards in front of him. "_It looks like while those white attacks pack one hell of a punch, they're unstable. Any kind of impact makes them detonate…still doesn't mean I want to get hit by one though_," Danny mused, a stern expression settling on his face as a plan came together in his mind.

Dani growled at the sight of her attack exploding before it even reached her foe. She was furious that he seemed to be mocking her, even now when she was forcing him to go on the defensive. With a strangled cry of pure fury, she unleashed another assault on Danny, only to see him make that detonate as well long before it would have hit him. Panting with exhaustion, she unleashed a furious assault on the elder halfa, trying to take the cockiness right out of him.

Danny gulped at the attacks that were coming his way, fear just starting to settle in his stomach like a leaden weight. "Danielle, you need to calm down," he shouted as he fired off ghost rays as quickly as he could, trying to make sure that the city wouldn't see a sudden rise in insurance rates. He gasped as he had to erect a ghost shield and fly right at one attack that he had missed. He knew this was going to hurt, but he wasn't about to let Dani have something like this weighing on her soul.

The Titan's arrived just in time to see Phantom making a break for the energy attack that was about to collide into a skyscraper, causing untold amounts of property damage. "No," Robin shouted, having seen a few of the white explosions in the distance, fearing for the sheer destruction that one blast would cause to the city. It didn't even register to him that the elder halfa was on a collision course with the attack.

CRACKA-THOOM

The titans gasped at the size of the white explosion, several hundred feet in the air and the very edges of it still brushed the rooftop of the nearest building. They saw the unearthly amount of smoke rising into the air and Robin wondered what could have possibly prematurely detonated that blast. Cyborg decided that it would be a good time to see who was floating in the air overhead.

"Damn, ghost girl's got game," Cyborg whistled, using his cybernetic eye to zoom in on the halfa, her hands still smoking from the power of the blast that she had emitted. Robin's head snapped to his titanium plated friend, almost giving himself whiplash, with a shocked look on his face.

"What did you say," Robin inquired, his voice low from the shock of what had just transpired.

"Spectre's pissed off at something," Cyborg responded, "And she's the one who just about level a good chunk of the city!"

"Then what stopped her," Robin fired back, his face turning to the roof that had been grazed by the attack as the smoke cleared. His eyemask widened as he say Phantom pull himself from the crater that he made upon impact.

"Alright, now I'm getting serious, I've got to stop her before she does something she's going to regret," Danny cursed under his breath as he stood up on wobbly legs. He didn't know how he had survived that blast, but he knew that he had to put an end to this before any innocent people got hurt. He flew up into the air and took a deep breath as Dani charged up another white blast.

Cyborg and Robin were let down onto a nearby roof as they saw the two super powered teens charge up for another exchange. "We've got to stop them; they could level the city with their fighting! Titans, GO," Robin shouted, his mind already running through the potential damage those two could do. Phantom had to be stopped; he was the cause of this after all. It's not like Spectre would intentionally pick a fight with him…..right?

Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy all took off after the two halfa, trying to get there to stop whatever they were planning. They were too late, as they soon realized. Dani let out a roar of challenge as she let loose another 'spirit bomb' and Danny responded in kind with an otherworldly howl laced with ectoplasm. The two attacks collided directly in between the two and for a brief second there was a power struggle between the two powerful attacks. It ended just as quickly as Dani's attack was detonated and the force was added to the devastating power of Danny's ghostly wail. The combined attacks quickly headed straight for a panting Dani, her eyes only barely having the time to widen in shock before she was consumed by the combined attack. Her forced exit of the airborne battlefield was masked by the pearlescent brilliance of her own attack.

Danny panted after having stopped his own attack, thankful that he hadn't been forced to transform back into his original form like he had been the last time he had used that attack. He gripped his head to steady himself, and gasped when he couldn't see his sister anymore. Panicked concern became readily apparent on his face as he flew towards where she had last been. He was brought up short as Starfire and Raven flew directly into his path. He didn't notice as a green owl flew off in the direction it figured that Dani would half traveled.

"Phantom," Raven inquired, her face kept carefully neutral, "Why are you attacking Spectre?"

"Yes, please tell us why you were engaged in such brutal combat with our friend," Starfire chimed in, righteous fury making her eyes glow with a bright green gleam.

"I don't have time for this," Danny growled out, angry that these heroes were stopping him from checking on Danielle to make sure she was alright, "Get out of my way, I have to see if Danielle's alright!" He turned intangible and flew through Starfire, causing her to shiver and gasp from the cold, alien sensation. He got past her before his trek was halted by a cloak of obsidian energy being wrapped around his body.

"Why, so that you can viscously assault her and possibly kill her," Raven declared, her tone icy from her restrained fury at the halfa held within her power's grip.

"What? Why would I try to kill her? She asked for a training session and when I said no she attacked me! Now let me go so that I can see if Danielle's alright" Danny cried out, his voice frantic with worry. Raven's concentration almost slipped as she gasped in surprise at his words.

"Please tell us why you are so concerned for her safety," Starfire inquired, concern evident on her face. The glow in her eyes died down to reveal her green-tinted sclera.

"And tell us how you know her secret identity while you're at it," Raven inquired, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Because she's my sister," Danny shouted out. Why couldn't these heroes see that he's the bad guy….oh right, they're heroes and probably jumped to conclusions like he had been guilty of from time to time. This time Raven did lose her concentration on holding the halfa as both of the female titans gasped in shock. The halfa quickly bolted in the direction that he figured that Danielle had been rocketed off in. He nearly growled with anger as Starfire and Raven quickly caught up to him, flying on either side of him. "Why won't you stop trying to peg me as the bad guy long enough for me to make sure that she's alright," the ghost teen shouted angrily at both of them.

"We're coming with you to make sure that she's alright," Raven replied, the ice having slipped out of her voice.

"Because she is our friend and a fellow Titan," Starfire replied, "But I must apologize in advance, we won't be able to just let you go after we have confirmed her physical condition. You are registered as a most villainous criminal and a menace to society."

"Why is it that nobody believes me when I say I was framed," Danny muttered under his breath.

"Probably because of the video evidence that states otherwise," Raven retorted wryly.

"And nobody ever stopped to consider that with all the ghosts attacking the town that people could have been possessed," Danny sighed in exasperation. Raven decided to let that train of thought drop as she pulled out her communicator. She flipped it open and keyed it in to Robin's frequency. It didn't take long for the Boy Wonder's face to appear on her screen.

"What's going on Raven," Robin inquired, his voice laced with concern despite his serious demeanor, "We saw you holding Phantom down then you suddenly released him and gave chase when he tried to escape."

"We're currently chasing down Spectre to make sure that she is alright after the explosion," Raven reported, "Apparently she had asked him for a training session and attacked him to make sure that he would go along with it. Things had gotten out of hand before we arrived and he's worried about what may have happened to her." Robin's eyemask widened in surprise at that admission.

"So that's what started this whole mess," Robin sighed, wondering what had gotten into the girl to make her go that far to get a training session when she could have just come to the tower and asked for assistance. Then a thought suddenly popped into his head. "How did she even know where to find Phantom?"

"They're siblings," Raven replied, "Apparently Phantom is the brother that she let slip the other day. And judging from their similar abilities and appearance, I'd say that he's the one she is the clone of."

"But why would one turn to villainy while the other became a hero," Robin pressed further.

"I'm not entirely certain that the villain claim is true Robin. He did put himself in the way of that attack to prevent serious harm coming to the city," Raven replied, a small amount of uncertainty tainting her words.

Robin's brows knitted together in confusion at that comment. "_That would be a strange thing for a villain to do_," Robin thought to himself before coming to a decision. "Cyborg and I will try to follow you three. Send a beacon when you find Spectre." Raven nodded in understanding before both bird-named heroes closed their communicators.

"I am wondering Phantom, why is it that you went away from your previous place of residence and came here to Jump City," Starfire inquired the obviously worried ghost boy flying to her left. Raven gasped and fell a few feet as her concentration slipped, her empathic abilities allowing him to feel the waves of melancholy and self-loathing radiating from the halfa to her right at Starfire's question.

"_What happened to him to cause such strong negative emotions_," Raven wondered in morbid fascination as she regained her previous altitude, "_And why is there self-loathing running beside his other dark emotions?_" She looked to Danny, a touch of concern for his emotional well-being welling up within her carefully controlled emotions.

Danny took a few moments to gather his thoughts after the Tamaranean's sudden inquiry. He struggled to keep his emotions out of his voice when he responded, only managing to bring his voice into a hushed tone. "Ever hear that the only thing people like better than a hero is tearing one down," he replied, a grim far-away look on his face as traces of anger and resignation joined the depression that Raven had already been sensing from him, causing her to drop another foot in the air. Starfire nodded at his question, remembering hearing Robin make the same statement once or twice.

"I used to play the hero in a town where ghosts were attacking on a daily basis, but because of my ghost status they thought that I was also one of the ghosts trying to attack them," Danny continued, "It didn't help when Walker, the ghost prison warden, decided to turn my life into a prison. You probably heard about that ghost invasion on the news."

"Followed shortly by 'Inviso-Bill' kidnapping the mayor on live television," Raven stated, agreeing with his statement and noticing the wave of anger that washed over the ghost boy before he buried it again. "I've read a few books on powerful spirits, and Walker was stated to be a spirit of law and order. Why would he decide to make your life a prison if you were trying to protect people from malevolent ghosts?"

"Because what that book didn't tell you is that he likes to make up new rules and not tell anybody so that he can capture them," Danny snorted derisively. Raven's eyebrow perked up at that. She hadn't told him that, but it had been in the tome as well. It was obvious to her that he really had come to blows with the ghost warden. "My parent's anniversary present fell through their ghost portal and I went in to retrieve it. I was caught by him for 'bringing a real-world object into the Ghost Zone.' He arrested me and I arranged a prison break, during which I figured out that real-world objects can pass through walls in the Ghost Zone like ghosts do in the real world. I grabbed the present and escaped with the help of my only human friends." Danny's face and tone became haunted at the memory of his friends and family.

"That would explain it," Raven responded, a small amount of respect traced her words at what he had gone through for his loved ones.

"What happened next Phantom," Starfire inquired, her eyes wide in fascination at his story, noticing the pain that some of his memories seemed to give him.

"Walker and his goons overshadowed everybody that could make rules; Walker personally overshadowed the mayor…" Danny continued, his anger flaring at the memory of the ghost invasion of Amity Park. "I didn't figure that one out until about two seconds after I was framed. He even told me himself what his plan was after he had dragged me back inside." At the mention of that incident, Danny grimaced at the memories. "I still tried to be a hero and stop the ghost attacks, but it got harder when my parents started hunting me as well." Raven's eyes flew open in shock at his admission, just the thought of that happening enough to make her feel pity for the tortured soul beside her.

Starfire gasped, horror painted over her face, "Why would you parents do such things?"

"They were ghost hunters," Danny replied, a repentant look adorning his face, "And I never told them my secret."

Raven, now struggling to keep her own emotions under control while under the psychic assault of the ghost boy's powerful rolling emotions, inquired, "Why do you speak of them in the past tense?"

"Same reason I'm not a hero anymore," Danny replied, a tone of finality in his voice as his agitation rose. Raven, currently having a hard enough time holding her concentration, decided to drop the subject.

Starfire was not as perceptive as her pale friend. "I do not understand. What could have happened to your parents to cause you to stop being the hero?" Raven visibly winced at what she could only describe as Starfire unwittingly opening barely closed wounds from an empathic standpoint. Danny visibly trembled as the memories washed over him, tears threatening to spill from his eyes at any moment. He never noticed when Starfire chased after Raven to stop her unscheduled free fall. Quickly catching her, Starfire brought them back up to the same altitude as the halfa that had stopped his flight, his eyes closed in an effort to hold back the tears of his memories.

"Are you alright friend Raven," Starfire inquired, "Do you need to do the meditation?"

"Yes, but not now," Raven replied, "Right now we need to-"

"They're dead."

"What," Raven intelligently inquired, her head snapping over to face the ghost boy whose emotions were wildly spinning out of control.

"My family, my friends, they're dead," Danny stated, his voice raising and cracking from raw emotion. "They died because of an evil future version of me that I accidentally gave a way into the present! They're dead because of an explosion that I accidentally set into motion two days before the final fight! They're dead because I couldn't stop my future self in time! They're dead and it's all my fault!"

Starfire gasped, feeling regret at opening that particular can of worms. "I did not know; I am sorry."

"Sorry? Sorry? What do you have to be sorry about? You wanted to know why I stopped being a hero; well you got your answer," Danny shouted, tears streaming from his eyes and panting from his emotional outbreak.

"I am sorry that I have caused you to remember such a horrible time in your life," Starfire replied as calmly as she could, despite the tremors of sympathy that ran through her soul.

Raven was stunned. Sure her life was bad, and Danny's didn't quite compare, but she felt a certain kinship towards him. He had experienced hell because of his powers, just like she had for most of her life on Azerath. If there was anybody on this dimension that she could sympathize with, she was looking straight at him. She was secretly sighing in relief as the pressure that had been assaulting her sensitive psyche was suddenly relieved; apparently Phantom had spent himself emotionally with that outburst. She then gave an audible sigh of relief when she spotted the subject of their search.

"Over there, on the roof of the library," Raven stated as evenly as she could muster, pointing at the form of Dani to guide her travelling companions to where she was talking about. Both Starfire and Danny followed her gaze and finger to where the form of the younger halfa lay. Raven raised an eyebrow when it appeared as though Danny had teleported to Dani, concern and worry now filling the emotional void. The female titans were quick to follow, Raven pressing a button on her communicator to provide a beacon for her fellow Titans.

"Danielle, are you alright," Danny asked plaintively, cradling her head in his lap. As Raven and Starfire descended, they spotted the initial impact crater on the far end of the roof and several smaller impact areas where the young halfa had apparently bounced and rolled across nearly the entire length of the roof.

"Yes friend Spectre, are you unharmed," Starfire inquired as she floated over the two halfas.

"Uhn, my head," Dani groaned as she slowly regained consciousness moments later, "Did somebody get the number of the airplane that hit me?"

"You got mad and Phantom had to use his sonic attack to stop you from leveling a large amount of the city," Raven deadpanned as she knelt over the ghost girl, a blue glow emitting from her hands.

"What are you doing," Danny asked, pulling Dani closer with suspicion evident in his voice.

"It's a healing spell, and it's a good thing that I'm using it; she has six bruised ribs, one cracked rib, and several scrapes and burns," Raven replied saying nothing further as she set herself to the task of healing the injured girl before her.

"Don't worry, I feel fine," Dani stated as she attempted to get up, stopping because of a mix of Danny's hold on her and the spots dancing wildly before her eyes.

"Try not to move," Raven commanded as she focused further on healing Dani, "You may have a concussion as well." They sat there in silence for several moments as Raven concentrated on healing her newest friend. Starfire looked at her pale friend in concern, knowing the toll that Raven's healing spells took on her own body. When Raven had done all that she could she stood up. "I'm afraid that's all I'll be able to do. I would like to ask you to come with us to the Tower where we could hold you for a few days to make sure that you are fine."

"I'm not going to let her go on her own," Danny replied, "I have a responsibility as an older brother to watch over her." Dani smiled at the concern that the elder halfa was showing her.

"Good, because I've got some questions I'd like to ask you before we turn you in," Robin declared as he landed on the roof, putting away his grappling hook as he walked toward the gathered forms. Cyborg and Beast Boy were hot on his heels.

Danny carefully set the younger halfa on the ground before getting into a defensive stance. Raven decided to play the diplomat on this one. "Robin, I will tell you the details later, but let's not worry about bringing Phantom in at the moment. After we have made sure that Spectre is going to be alright, then we can talk things through, but for now we shouldn't talk about arresting him." Robin and Raven glared heatedly at each other, trying to cow one another, before Robin sighed.

Robin put up his hands in resignation, "Alright, let's get Spectre to the Tower and talk things over. But if I'm not satisfied with the answers, I won't hesitate to take you down."

Danny held his stance for a few more moments before relaxing and bending over to pick up Dani. He cradled her to his chest like one would an infant. "Alright, let's get out of the open. I've been out here for too long."

"What's the big deal with being in the open for too long," Cyborg inquired, his curiosity piqued.

"Because I don't want there to be any ghost attacks on Jump City just because of my presence," Danny replied as he floated off of the ground.

"Why would there be ghost attacks just because of you being here," Robin questioned the floating ghost boy before him.

"Because all of my enemies know my secret identity and would still be hunting me down," Danny replied, a small amount of ice in his voice.

"C'mon dude, it's not like anybody's going to wave a sign saying you're here," Beast Boy joked.

"If your enemies are hunting you down then all the more reason to put you under observation at the very least," Robin stated, suspicion lacing his words.

"You're not going to let that go, are you," Danny sighed in resignation.

"Dude, its Robin you're talking about," Beast Boy shouted, "He never lets anything go!"

"Grass stain's got ya there Robin," Cyborg chuckled, watching as Beast Boy deflated at the nickname.

"Alright, but let's hurry; the wall's have ears you know," Danny declared.

"I'll give Robin a lift so that I can inform him of the situation," Raven stated. Starfire didn't question her judgment. She knew that Raven had probably gotten more from their conversation than she had. With nods from everybody, Starfire lofted Cyborg into the air as the flight arrangements were taken care of and they took off to Titan's Tower.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Infirmary, Fifteen Minutes Later

* * *

"Alright, according to your record, you're a criminal Phantom," Robin declared to the two teens before him. They were currently in the infirmary, both of the halfas having transformed into their normal forms as soon as they had entered this room.

"Please just call me Danny; I want nothing to do with my past life," the elder halfa responded.

"Okay, Danny, but according to Raven you were framed, even stating the exact method that she agreed fitted with the perpetrators normal method of operation," Robin continued, "I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt this time. The situation has been explained to me by Raven so I can't in good conscience arrest you for attacking the city or another hero when it was in pure self-defense." Robin pointed his glare at a rather sheepish looking Dani who was rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment.

"I'm glad we got that cleared up," Danny sighed, relief plainly obvious on his face.

"I'm just wondering, why did you come to Jump City," Robin inquired.

"Because my legal guardian thought it would be a good idea to get away from all the bad memories and ghost attacks in Amity," Danny replied, a slight grimace on his face before it shifted to resignation, "I just want to live a normal life. No powers, no arch-enemies, just a normal life without any heroics. What I would never have had the chance to have if I'd stayed in Amity Park."

Robin nodded with that, obviously satisfied with his answer, "Mind telling me who your legal guardian is?"

"Promise not to spread it around," Danny responded, waiting for Robin to give him a nod of assent. "Vlad Masters." Robin's eyes nearly popped out of his sockets at that. His legal guardian was one of his mentor's greatest business competitors! He really hadn't been expecting that, no wonder Danny wanted it kept low profile.

"Thanks for answering my questions, but before I let you go, I'm want to make sure you realize that if you start attacking the city, we** will** take you down," Robin declared, narrowing his eyes in an attempt to intimidate the ghost boy sitting in front of him.

Danny looked him straight in the eye, showing none of the trepidation that Robin had been expecting of someone trying to lead a normal life, but rather one of somebody who has seen the worst that life had to offer. Given the tidbits that Raven had told him, he was willing to believe everything that look was telling him. The halfa then responded hollowly, no attempt at a lie within his voice, "And I'll let you." Robin nodded at that and left the room, taking the elevator down the stark halls down to the common room where the other Titans had gathered. The television was showing an image of the infirmary, an extra measure they had decided to take on top of putting a tracer on him so they'd know exactly where at in the tower that Danny was at any given moment. It appeared as though Raven had finished filling Beast Boy and Cyborg in on their guest's situation, if Beast Boy's shocked look and Cyborg's grimace were any indication.

"Friend Spectre is physically unharmed, is she not," Starfire immediately asked upon his arrival through the opening doors.

"She's going to be fine Starfire, but I would suggest that we hold her for the weekend," Robin replied, finally letting his expression relax.

"Man, and I thought that I had it bad," Cyborg stated, looking reflexively at his arm, apparently some of his worst memories playing through his head. "At least my dad survived, he lost everything in one go…I just wouldn't feel right arresting him."

Beast Boy's ears had drooped at the news that Raven had relayed. "Harsh dude. I don't think that I coulda kept on going if that had happened to me. But what I wanna know is why his future self would do that? Wouldn't he wanna stop his family from dying?"

"He was probably trying to secure his own future," Raven stated, trying to explain it to her rather annoying friend, "There might not have been enough left of his original self to feel the need to protect his family. But the present Phantom was still clinging to his humanity and felt the desire to protect those he felt close to."

"And because Danny already knew how his future would turn out, he tried to change it," Robin declared, following the dark titan's train of thought, "Failing that, he's trying to take every measure that he can to keep that future from coming about."

"And because of how he was treated, he just gave up tryin' to be a hero anymore; probably gave up on trying to use his powers either," Cyborg stated, finishing the line of thought, "Something that his future self apparently never did. He's goin' the extra mile to make sure that future doesn't happen."

"But he's a criminal, they're supposed to be treated like that," Robin declared stubbornly, his brow knitting as his mind was made up.

"Excuse me, but from my admittedly limited experience of human sociology, your species has a disturbing tendency to generalize everything," Starfire piped up, inserting herself into the conversation, "Might this be the case here as well?"

"Starfire, I've watched the video thirty-seven times," Robin growled out, "While his story makes sense and checks out from Raven's knowledge, it's too convenient. I still think he's guilty of kidnapping and reckless endangerment."

"I think we might need to keep an open mind on this one Robin," Raven stated, "Maybe you should let Cyborg run through some tests to cover more angles than what the eye alone can catch." Robin's mouth snapped shut as he considered that.

"Yeah, I could run a full spectral analysis on the tape and see if I can catch anything on that," Cyborg declared, obviously pleased that Raven had thought to bring that up.

"Yeah dude and you could let me see it too! A fresh set of eyes could totally help out," Beast Boy chimed in.

"Beast Boy, you don't have the detective experience or mechanical expertise to catch fine details like we need to find," Robin stated, watching as Beast Boy's excitement deflated instantly at the comment.

"But something does seem most peculiar about our guest," Starfire thought out loud.

"Yeah Star, he seems, I dunno, backwards to me," Beast Boy stated, a sheepish expression coming across his face at the combined strange looks he was getting from all of his friends. He decided to continue his line of thought, "I mean, Phantom or Inviso-Bill or whatever you wanna call him, tries to hide his powers all the time while most of the good guys and bad guys try to show off their powers and hide their secret identities. He's showing off his secret identity and hiding all of the cool stuff he can do, trying to act as though he doesn't have them at all. It just seems, I dunno, weird to me."

"You're right BB, we didn't even know he was here and he had to be here for **at least** five months before we even got a hint that he was in Jump City," Cyborg stated, "And it wasn't because of him that we found out, but his clone, sister, whatever you wanna call Spectre! Look like our little grass stain finally had a good thought!" The titanium titan started laughing at the dark look that Beast Boy was shooting his way.

"Statistically, it had to happen eventually," Raven declared dryly, a small smirk on her face.

"**Dude!** So not cool," Beast Boy groaned, shooting his darkest look at Raven and earning even more laughter from Cyborg.

"He may be a criminal, but he's trying to reform," Robin declared, bringing the room to dead silence, "I say we don't arrest him unless he starts causing trouble in the city."

"I am most overjoyed to hear you say that friend Robin," Starfire declared cheerfully as she swept the Boy Wonder into one of her 'hugs.' A few moments and some snickers from the other Titan males, and she let him down, still smiling cheerfully.

"I'll go check up on some leads," Robin grumbled, trying to work out the new kink in his back as he left the group through one of the side entrances into the room. Most of the Titans followed his example and left the common room soon afterward, save for Raven. She sat on the couch with one of her heavy tomes closed in her lap as she watched Danny on the television screen, seeing him holding Dani's hand with loving care as they both drifted off to sleep.

"_You've had more darkness in your life than many people twice your age, holding up a silent banner to protect those that wished nothing but death upon you_," Raven thought to herself as she watched the two halfas. "_You're a kindred spirit, and I shudder to think what would happen if you allowed the darkness to consume you._"

* * *

Unknown Location, Not Related to the Previous One

* * *

"Interesting," Slade commented, watching a video of the ectoplasm powered teens' fight. "But this Phantom is the only one of them that interests me. Unlike Spectre, he and Robin both have skill to go with their strength and cunning in combat. Yes, he'll do just fine if my first plan fails."


	4. Twilight Revelations

A/N: Howdy y'all! Welcome back for the fantabulous chapter four! One thing suddenly caught my attention that could undo all of this if you had a fine eye for detail. I had forgotten the order of Danny Phantom episodes, so I'm going to tell you how the order of episodes goes in this fanfic. Pretty much, the only difference is that The Ultimate Enemy (the episode that had Dark Danny) is before Memory Blank (the episode where Sam undid Danny's Public Ghost Enemy Number One status) in this fanon. Last chapter I covered a lot of bases with story improvements by going back to the style of writing that I had done in my previous stories. Amazing what a difference free forming a chapter can be to transposing a chapter from my notebook. The one thing that unsettles me about the last chapter, despite how natural it felt, is how easily Danny answered Raven and Starfire's questions. Granted, just because he doesn't want to be a hero anymore doesn't mean that he wouldn't be cooperative, but he pretty much gave them his life story. Oh well, that mess up and my little mess up from chapter 2 that is just a small plot screw up towards the end of it are finalized in my book so, meh. Anyway, please read and review.

* * *

Jump City, Unknown Location, Early Morning

* * *

"Heh, looks like they're hiding that pit-sniffer's location," Gizmo mused out loud, watching from his position across the bay as Spectre and some teen that had an obsession with the color black left the Tower. Something was bugging him though; the only two people that had entered the building on Saturday night that weren't regular members of the Titans were Phantom and Spectre. Gizmo set his mind to working on the conundrum set before him.

What also struck him as odd was that Phantom had been allowed into their tower, but no one from the bacon patrol had come by to arrest him. Hell, the way that battle in the sky had gone two nights ago, he'd halfway expected a member of the Justice League to show up! That black-haired teen was an unknown factor, and probably should be monitored since he had an obvious connection with Spectre. Something else then suddenly took root in his mind….well, two somethings. That black-haired kid looked faintly similar to Phantom in body type and hair style. Hell, those two looked like they could have been twins! The other thing that popped into his mind on the other hand…

He's never seen that black-haired teen enter the Tower.

* * *

Jump City, Fenton Apartment, Mid-Morning

* * *

"Ah," Dani sighed in contentment as she watched G4TV, sprawled on the couch, "It feels good to be able to skip school once in a while!"

"Well, don't get used to it Danielle," Danny called to the younger halfa over the noise the blender was making. He was in the process of making chocolate milkshakes in the large and well-stocked kitchen. "The only reason why we got away with it this time was because the Titans were insistent that you have an extra few days to recover. They were surprised at just how little that fight hurt me, considering the giant blast to the face I took to stop you from leveling the city."

"What'cha gonna be doing tonight Danny," the younger halfa asked, "There's supposed to be this big celebration tonight by the bay tonight."

"I was thinking about heading to the Midnight Latte, I've got a new piece of poetry that I just finished," the ghost boy replied. He looked at his 'sister' and saw a serious look on her normally carefree face. He just knew she was going to ask him a question, and he was pretty sure he knew what it was going to be.

"So how did it feel," Dani inquired, a look of euphoria on her face as she saw Danny pouring the contents of the blender into two glasses, "Using your powers again after so long, I mean."

Danny sighed, boggling momentarily at just how predictable her question was. Honestly, she was worse than he was when he was her age. "It felt kinda strange, how easily everything came back to me," Danny explained, a wistful look crossing his face before he quickly dashed it away. "Don't expect me to ever do that again though. I swore never to use my powers again, Danielle; that's one promise I intend to keep. Next time you pull that stunt, I'm going to call the Titans and let them deal with it. And I'm pretty sure that Robin wouldn't like having to deal with a hero picking a fight with a normal person."

"Pfft, come on Danny; we're about as far from normal as you can get," Dani rebutted the elder halfa flippantly. She winced at the look that crossed her brother's face. She had not meant to hurt him like that.

"Or, I could pull out the Fenton Bazooka and blast you into the Ghost Zone, letting you find your own way back into the real world," Danny muttered icily as he handed his sister her milkshake.

"If you're trying to lead a normal life, why did you even bring all that ghost hunting gear with you anyway," the ghost girl inquired further, trying to cover her own screw up and change the subject. This was something that had been bugging her for the past few months, pretty much as soon as they had left Vlad's lab in Wisconsin.

Danny sighed as he turned to look at the younger halfa, a look of resignation adorning his features. "Because all of my enemies know my secret identity. Whether or not I show myself again, they're going to find me, and with me being public ghost enemy number one, fighting them as Danny Phantom isn't an option. Because of the people in Amity Park, the cops would think that I'm the one attacking everybody and fire at me instead of the real bad guys. That gear will allow me to fight back without having to worry about that."

"If they see you helping people with your powers though, they might change their mind about you though," Dani protested stubbornly.

"Danielle, people don't think like that," Danny sighed, "At best, they'd think that I was trying to get on their good side to stab them in the back later." The younger halfa's face fell at that statement.

"You don't know that," Dani continued, struggling desperately to change her brother's mind, "The people here in Jump are different than the people in Amity!"

"Trust me Danielle, you live with a wanna-be psychiatrist for a few years and you learn a bit," Danny smirked wryly, "People only see what they want to see; that's what it boils down to." He watched in slight amusement as Dani's face fell at that, her entire argument deflated by his logic. Now he understood why Jazz loved pulling that on him so much….he grimaced as the memories washed over him and turned to head to his room.

"It's stupid that people are like that," the younger halfa grumbled in annoyance.

Danny paused at his door, revealing all of the ghost fighting weaponry lining the walls of his room to his sister. Without turning to face her, he responded in as neutral a tone as he could muster with the memories of what he had lost running through his mind. "I couldn't agree with you more." With that he entered his room and closed the door quietly with a note of finality.

"Maybe I should go back to the Tower and hang out with the Titans for a while…not like I can cause **that** much more damage here," Dani sighed as she let the white rings float over her. She became invisible and intangible before leaving through the roof.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Late Morning

* * *

"Dude, that's harsh," Beast Boy winced as the female halfa explained how here morning had gone after leaving the Tower. Needless to say, he couldn't have done worse himself.

"Sounds 'bout like what happens when Beast Boy stays up all night playin' the GameStation," Cyborg chuckled. Okay, Cyborg had to comment on it but that's just because he was there. "Least we know he's serious 'bout no wanting to use his powers."

"So, what'cha wanna do now that you're here Spectre," Beast Boy inquired. She looked between the two boys with a flat look on her face.

"I bet I could beat both of ya on Halo," Dani smirked, a grin spreading on her face. The boys just returned her grin, silently agreeing to her challenge.

Raven was currently in her room. Now, this is not an unusual thing for her. What made it unusual, however, was the fact she was performing research rather than meditating or trying to find another good book to read. She was furthering her knowledge of the denizens of the spirit world, or the Ghost Zone as Phantom had referred to it. She was looking up some of the stronger and more malevolent spirits in an attempt to see who would most likely have tried to attack the halfa. Her list was surprisingly short after four hours of pouring over her tomes. So short, in fact, that it only comprised two spirits; one of which she had already confirmed and was automatically on the list. The other ghost was the spirit world's greatest hunter, a being dedicated to hunting, skinning, and mounting the rarest creatures in existence.

She figured being a halfa counted as being a rare creature, and thus on Skulker's list of targets.

Just those two enemies, no matter how formidably they might be, couldn't beat Phantom in her opinion. He had already proved that he not only could think of strategies on the fly, but that he was a formidable foe in his own right. But she just couldn't figure out what made him want to fight ghosts in the first place. She figured it might have had something to do with his parent's having been among the world's foremost experts on ghosts, but most teen tended to try and separate themselves from their parents. She knew it would be rude to ask him, that and she hadn't managed to find a reliable way to contact him or where he lived for that matter, but the mystery that was Phantom was bugging her.

But she did enjoy a good mystery almost as much as she loved a good book.

She closed her tome with a sigh. The only other ghost that it was apparent that he had met was Clockwork, and if that particular ghost was one of Danny's enemies…the city was doomed. Although, given that ghost's general neutrality in all matters, she highly doubted that he was one of the halfa's enemies. Maybe she was doing research from the wrong angle. Perhaps she should look into it like Robin might and look at newspaper articles from Amity Park. That seemed far more likely to yield results to her, but it wasn't her usual thing; probably why the idea hadn't come to mind until just now. On that note, she opened up a portal of inky-blackness and teleported herself to the common room so she could google for the appropriate newspaper articles.

Raven did not **do** stairs.

That was about the time she realized Jump City's other resident halfa was playing Halo against both Beast Boy and Cyborg. And from the sounds of things….

"Come on, how did you do that," Cyborg shouted, having just been exploded by the scenery and a fragmentation grenade.

"You think that's bad, she didn't even use any ammo on me," Beast Boy groaned loudly. Apparently, his little space man had just been beat into submission after Dani had landed from her assault on the titanium titan.

She was beating both of them badly. Raven boggled at that for a moment before shaking her head and sitting at the computer terminal off to the side. She logged on and immediately did a search for Amity Park's newspaper articles. "Hmmm, the Amity Park Daily Journal; and here I thought the entire town was filled with spectral names," Raven murmured with a raised brow, having seen Casper High among several other ghost-themed names, "Now let's see what I get when I search Inviso-Bill or ghost teen." After a few more keystrokes, she was seeing a list of all of his past enemies.

"So, what are you looking up Raven," Robin inquired, placing a hand on the dark titan's shoulder. Needless to say, she was startled at his sudden entrance. It took her a few moments to school herself before she turned to her leader.

"I'm looking up Phantom's previous enemies," Raven replied, thankful that Robin wasn't the type to poke fun at her for catching her off-guard. "If his claim that his enemies would track him down turns out to be true, I think we should be fully prepared for their arrival."

"Well, what have you found so far," Robin inquired, obviously impressed and intrigued by Raven's initiative if the raising of one side of his eyemask was any indication.

"Not very many, but the enemies he has made are fearsome enough," Raven replied, indicating the monitor, "There's Walker, as I've already explained; then Skulker, he's the spirit of the hunt, preferring to hunt rare creatures; one that calls himself Technus, the ghost master of technology; Desiree, she's a wish-granting ghost; the Red Huntress, a human ghost hunter, she doesn't seem to care very much about collateral as long as there's a ghost involved; and then there's the Fright Knight." Raven shuddered at the last one on the list.

"What's the deal with the Fright Knight," Robin questioned further, looking over her shoulder at the computer screen.

"The Fright Knight is the spirit of Halloween from medieval times," Raven explained, keeping the awe out of her voice at the ghost boy already impressive rogue's gallery that was probably incomplete, "I would advise against hand-to-hand combat with him, if my tomes are correct about his primary ability."

"And what would that be," Robin asked, his tone serious at the grave tone that his friend was using for this enemy.

"If his sword touches you, you are physically transported into a realm where your greatest nightmares are reality," Raven explained, shuddering at the thought of what that particular ghost could do, "The only way to return is for him to be defeated by another. If we ever confront him, somebody will have to make him stab into a pumpkin in order to defeat him and free all those trapped in their own nightmares."

Robin shuddered at the thought of what that sort of opponent could do as well. "How did Phantom get himself into that kind of mess? He seems to be pretty level-headed to me."

"He wasn't always level-headed," Dani replied from her position on the couch, her face serious despite the amount of tears the other two occupants of the couch were shedding at getting thoroughly defeated. "From what our legal guardian has told me, he used to be a hot-head until all the chips were down. He accidentally freed the Fright Knight in an attempt to win a Halloween contest and tricked him into stabbing a pumpkin to beat him." Robin frowned at that statement. It seemed to him that irresponsibility was genetic when it came to the halfas.

"Do you know of any of his other enemies," Raven inquired, not able to keep the curiosity out of her voice.

"Not really, you pretty much listed all the big names that I was told," Dani shrugged before turning to Robin with a grin on her face. "Hey Robin, you wanna play too? There's no way either of these two are a challenge."

Robin looked at the screen with the post game report showing, and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull. A thirty minute match to one hundred kills, and she had wiped the floor with both Cyborg and Beast Boy. They hadn't even killed her once! A grin spread on his face at that thought; finally, a challenge! "You're on. Don't go crying to Danny when I beat you."

"I'll make it fair," Dani smirked in response, "How does you three against me sound?"

"You seem pretty sure of yourself," Robin replied as he picked up a controller and plopped onto the couch. He guessed that tracking down Phantom and looking at his background could wait. It wasn't often he got an obviously skilled challenger after all.

Raven rolled her eyes at the bonding moment between the four. What was so interesting about video games anyway? Then a thought popped into her mind. "Maybe I should visit that café later on tonight," Raven quietly thought aloud, "It might give me an opportunity to get to know more about the other halfa in town." With that thought in mind, she dropped into a portal of her ebon energy to retreat to her room.

She never heard the cries of the vanquished that came from the common room.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Mid-Afternoon

* * *

"Man, I can't believe she whooped all of us," Cyborg wailed. It had been a couple of hours since the killing frenzy on Halo had ended. What ground his gears was that the only one that could touch her was Robin! He was the only reason they even got anywhere _near_ winning.

"Yeah, isn't it like a rule or something that girls are supposed to be bad at video games or something," Beast Boy groaned. He quickly hid behind the titanium titan with a short cry of fear at the death glare that said girl leveled at him. Cyborg may have seen better, but not by much; still, it did get a ping on his proximity alert, only Raven had ever done that before.

"I have never been so humiliated before," Robin complained, "I want a rematch, just you and me Spectre!"

"I'd love to Robin, but the last five times I agreed to that I still beat you," Dani replied with a smug look adorning her face, "Hell, I stopped killing the other two just to go after you the last twelve games. Face it boys, this girl's just better than you."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it," Robin grumbled, "I will beat you Dani, just you wait."

"Would that be before or after I become a full ghost," the halfa quipped, smirking at the angry look on the Boy Wonder's face. "Anyway, what are you guys doing tonight?"

"Well, we were planning on going down to the carnival," Cyborg stated offhandedly, "This will be Starfire's first Fourth of July here on Earth, and Robin wanted to show her a good time."

"Dude, we so have to win Raven a prize from the games," Beast Boy laughed, "She so needs to learn how to live a little. Seriously, who spends all of their free time in their room?"

"Well, there's Danny for one," Dani responded, "I mean, all he ever does is write dark poetry and visit the Midnight Latte."

"Let's invite Danny too, those two need to get out and live it up a little," Cyborg declared, "Life's too short to spend all your time in a dark room reading or writing horror."

"I would ask him, but I'm pretty sure that he's gonna say no," Dani replied, leaning over the back of the couch. "He doesn't like being in places that are very public anymore."

"Just because he's had a bad life doesn't mean that he should just shut himself in his room all the time Spectre," Cyborg rebutted, his hand unconsciously clenching into a fist at memories of days gone by. His grumbling was cut short by a gloved hand on his shoulder. The cybernetic teen turned to look at Robin with his human eyebrow arched quizzically.

"Cyborg, let it go," Robin stated, earning shocked looks from the other tow boys, "If anybody can understand what he's going through right now, it's me. That's why I let him go instead of turning him in…he reminds me of myself way back." The only thing that hid the pained look in his eyes was his eyemask.

"Dawg, you don't know what I've even been through to make a claim like that," Cyborg growled in anger at the spiky haired teen.

"Granted, but you didn't throw yourself into something else to distract you from the pain while it was fresh," Robin replied, his voice carrying a tone of sympathy in it. "If I remember right, you were trying to hide what you'd become up until the night we met Starfire."

"Yeah but," Cyborg stuttered before realizing what Robin meant, "Dawg, sorry about that. Guess I got a bit carried away there." Cyborg's features relaxed as his fury faded away.

"C'mon guys, we gotta at least invite him," Beast Boy stated, then shrank under the ghost girl's baleful eye.

"Let's at least invite Raven to come along, it could be fun," Dani chirped, aborting her glare at the changeling just as quickly as she'd started it.

"I think she said something about visiting a café later on tonight," Robin chipped in, watching Dani's crestfallen face at the statement with a small amount of satisfaction, "She might catch up with us later, but for now she's probably not coming along."

"Just as long as she doesn't go to the Midnight Latte, that should be alright," Dani stated with a thoughtful look on her face, "I think that Danny said something about going there tonight to read his new piece."

Robin didn't gulp, but mentally he was sweating bullets knowing **exactly** where the violet haired titan was probably going to go tonight.

* * *

Jump City, Downtown, Late Evening

* * *

"Stupid paparazzi," Raven grumbled as she continued walking downtown. The skyscrapers and businesses loomed above her head. When she had made this plan to attempt to gather information from Phantom, she had forgotten one simple fact. It was a simple fact that she should have realized much sooner than when she was about to leave the tower due to her popularity.

The thrice damned paparazzi would try to take pictures of her and take them out of context to make a quick buck.

This is why she was currently wearing a deep violet beanie to cover the gem upon her forehead along with a simple dark blue blouse, black capris, and midnight blue sneakers. She inwardly sighed at having to dress in her civvies to go out in public when she wanted a moment away from prying eyes. What's worse is that she absolutely _despised_ wearing the capris that Starfire had picked out for her…at least she had gotten to pick the color. She didn't **do** pink.

"Now where was that café again," Raven mused out loud, trying to find the target of her search. It wasn't like she'd never been there before, but it had been a while and she had had other stuff on her mind, like fighting criminals. The fact that she'd been searching for it on foot for the last hour didn't do anything for her disposition though. "_This is the last time I walk through the city without a map_," Raven grumbled in her thoughts.

Then, she finally caught sight of her quarry, the elusive Midnight Latte. She breathed a sigh of relief as she caught sight of it. "_Note to self, look on Chester Street six blocks south of Pizza Palace next time_," Raven thought to herself, "_Or take a taxi. They might have a better grasp of where buildings that don't involve crimes regularly are_." The dark titan grimaced at her own thoughts. She'd saved the city from several criminals for over half a year and she still didn't know her way around town. She didn't know whether that was worrying or comforting, considering what the prophesy of her birth foretold…she shook her head clear of her rather more morbid than usual thoughts as she entered the café.

It was a rather simple affair, as far as coffee shops with poetry corners were concerned. It wasn't set into the basement of the building, like most of the novels that she had read usually placed such businesses. Rather, the dark tinted windows gave the building that same feeling without being stereotypical. The lights were interspersed throughout the whole café randomly, whether by design or accident she had no clue, but considering the larger central light being brighter than the other rather dim lights she had a suspicion that it was the former. It did give off the feeling of sitting under the nighttime sky, an atmosphere that the dark titan could appreciate. The counter was selling coffee and tea at reasonable prices, a plus in her book, which probably accounted for part of the popularity of the business. The tables strewn throughout the floor were mostly packed with customers enjoying their drinks with most of the people sitting at them facing the small stage on the far wall.

"_Must be poetry night_," Raven mused as she went up to the counter and ordered an herbal tea. Her tea in hand, she sat at an empty table about mid-way through the room and looked at the stage. The lights seemed to dim as a dark haired figure stepped onto the stage, save for the larger light that seemed to focus it's luminescence onto the figure. "_Nice effect_," Raven mused wryly as she sipped her tea then sighed in contentment, "_Chai with a hint of jasmine, my favorite_." That was about when she noticed exactly who it was that was on the stage.

Danny stepped up to the mic, a sort of solemn grace in his posture. He nodded to the cashier at the counter and she smiled as she dimmed down the central light. He closed his eyes as the lines of his most recent piece of poetry came back to him. When he was prepared mentally, that's when he spoke.

"Dark girl, with a life so strong,

Dark girl that loved for so long.

In love with a fool so dumb,

Whose heart is now so numb.

Why did you fall in love with him,

A boy that was so very dim.

Why did you fall him to the ends of the earth,

Could you not see it would bring only your death.

Dark girl, who was anything but coy,

Unless it concerned that boy.

Why could you always make your opinions known,

Up until to you his face was shown.

Why did you feel the need to follow,

And be shown a future so hollow.

A future with nothing but strife,

A future in which you had no life.

Dark girl, who was but a teen,

That was exposed to a world without green.

What was it you found,

That brought your knees to the ground.

Only at the last moment did he realize,

What was before his very eyes.

In an explosion, your life became no more,

And only then was his heart tore.

Dark girl, with a mind so demure,

Dead girl, with a love so pure.

What did you see in that knave,

That you took with you to your grave."

There was quiet applause from the audience when Danny finished his poem, and more than a few tear-streaked faces strewn here and there. He nodded his head slightly as he made his way off the stage, and the lights came back on to their original strength. He frowned at the sudden lack of empty tables, and looked for an empty seat. The only one he could find was by a violet haired girl that sitting alone near the center of the room. He shrugged as he made his way to the table. When he got there he asked, "Mind if I sit here?"

Raven nodded as the halfa took his seat. She waited until he was completely seated before continuing. "Not at all Danny." She smirked internally at the confusion and surprise painted clearly on his face.

"I'm sorry, have we met before…" Danny inquired, more than a little nervous at the sudden turn of events.

"You can call me Rachel when I'm not wearing the leotard," Raven replied before sipping her tea. She noticed the panicked look on his face and decided to interrupt before he could blow her cover. "And please don't shout my identity; it's hard enough to get civvies so I can go out in the town without being pestered by the paparazzi." Danny immediately calmed down, seeing the truth behind that statement. He shuddered at the thought of the magazine covers that littered his sister's room.

"So mind telling me what you're doing here," the halfa inquired, suspicion lacing his words. Raven arched an eyebrow at that, but decided that it did look rather stalkerish of her to pop up in the same club that he would be in.

"Other than enjoying a cup of my favorite tea and listening to some poetry," the dark titan stated, "I'm surprised that your poetry is that dark. Of course, judging from the emotions you were projecting, I'm getting the feeling that was a personal experience." At the halfa's eyes shifting, she decided to continue. "So, what was her name?"

"Her name was Samantha Manson, but she preferred to go by Sam," Danny replied, his eyes glazing over slightly as the memories washed over him. Raven shuddered at the waves of melancholy emotions that washed over her. Perhaps that wasn't the wisest of questions. "I didn't realize how she felt about me until I saw her eyes just before she died. I felt like such an idiot for not picking up on the signals before then." Raven knew he wasn't lying, if the sudden spike of self-loathing was any clue.

She shifted in her seat uncomfortably at the feelings that the halfa was broadcasting; it was starting to unbalance her own emotional balance. "_When I get home, I'm going to have to meditate again. What is it about him that always cuts through my mental defenses_," the violet eyed titan mused to herself before deciding to break the awkward silence that had come in between the two. "Let's change the subject."

Danny nodded, a small amount of relief having etched its way onto his face. "What do you want to talk about?"

Raven sighed as she got ready for the outburst she knew was going to happen. "I'd like to ask a few questions about your enemies in case they do come to Jump City," Raven declared; she decided to continue quickly at the scowl that was forming on the ghost boy's face. "It's so that we would know how best to take them down so you wouldn't have to otherwise get involved."

Danny's scowl softened at that. "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to help out. My conscience his burdened enough already. I don't know what would happen if an enemy I could have taken down easily showed up and you were all killed because I didn't want to help out." The halfa's words cut through the dark titan sharper than any knife had the right to.

"I already know about Walker, Skulker, Technus, Desiree, and the Fright Knight," Raven explained, "But I don't know about any other ghosts that you may have fought since they weren't in the paper."

The halfa quirked an eyebrow at that, so she'd decided to look into his past and looked for him when she couldn't find anything else out. At least she didn't come straight to him for answers and tried to find them out on her own. "The other ghosts I've fought are Penelope Spectra, Bertrand, Ember, Captain Youngblood, the Box Ghost, the Lunch Lady Ghost, Kitty, and Johnny 13. There were a bunch of other minor ghosts, and the Box Ghost is just the most prominent of the minor ghosts."

"How would we go about defeating them," Raven inquired, her curiosity piqued at the rather large list of enemies. Danny surreptitiously looked around the room and noticed quite a few people looking at them, listening in on the conversation.

"Um, mind if we go somewhere a little more private to discuss this, I think that we might be drawing a little bit too much attention to ourselves," Danny muttered in a low voice and gestured the dark titan to look around the room. Her eyebrow arched delicately as her gaze swept the room.

"Agreed, shall we then," Raven consented as she rose from her seat. The ghost boy nodded as he rose from his seat as well and they made their exit from the café.

They strolled through the city, making their way towards the park. A question popped in Danny's mind and he decided to voice it. "How did you know I was going to be there anyway?"

Raven's eyebrow quirked up a bit at the question, but she decided to be truthful in her answer. "When we first met Dani, she mentioned that you write dark poetry. I decided to try there to see if you would show up. She never mentioned that you went to the café to recite your poetry, though." She looked at the halfa's puzzled face; apparently she hadn't answered his question yet. "It was just chance that I managed to find the right café and that you would be there tonight. It was the only one I could think of that allowed the customers to recite their poetry."

"I thought for a second there that you would have pulled a corny fate line that we would meet tonight," Danny chuckled, "No offence, but that seemed to be where you were going with that."

"None taken," Raven replied, "That's the sort of thing that happens in trashy romance novels though, not the sort of book that I read."

"That and it's on the list of pick-up lines that never work," Danny laughed, shaking his head in amusement. "_I haven't talked to a girl this easily in a long time. I wonder why Raven's so easy to talk to_," the ghost boy thought to himself.

"There's that to," Raven replied, holding back a small giggle. Raven didn't **do** giggles. It was about then that her communicator went off. She sent a silent curse at whomever it was that decided to contact her. She quickly turned down into an alley and opened the yellow device, Danny following her out of curiosity. "What's the problem?"

"_Starfire's in trouble! Where are you at Raven_," the Boy Wonder exclaimed through the tiny screen.

"I'm currently about a block from the park," Raven replied seriously, "I'm with Danny at the moment and I don't think that I'd be able to make it to the pier in time to assist you without blowing my cover."

"_Alright_," Robin sighed wearily, knowing the fight would be just that much more difficult without the dark titan's help, "_I just hope we can do this without you Raven_." With that, the screen flickered off as the Boy Wonder cut off the transmission. She pocketed the device and turned around to face the halfa.

"Sorry if I got you into trouble," Danny sighed as the violet haired girl turned to face him.

"No need to apologize," Raven replied, "It's my fault for not wearing my usual outfit to draw less attention to myself. I'll just have to tell Robin exactly what happened so he knows that I wasn't just shirking off my duties."

"He sounds like a control freak," the halfa scowled.

Raven smiled slightly at that, "That's because he is a little bit of one." They briskly exited the alley and continued on their way to the park. "But he is a good leader, and his decisions are usually the best ones, probably why we keep on following him."

"Note the usually," Danny smirked.

"He does have a tendency to allow his ego to get in the way," Raven responded, a wry smile on her face.

"The only thing bigger than his ego is probably his hair gel bill," Danny laughed.

Raven couldn't help it, she joined him in his laughter briefly. "You have no idea." Once their brief laughing fit ended, they saw the park before them. The made their way into it and got a little bit further away from the late joggers before continuing their conversation from earlier, much to the dark titan's disappointment, which surprised her.

"So what all are you wanting to know about those ghosts," Danny sighed, all traces of humor having left his voice, "I'm pretty sure Robin will let you off the hook if you got the information you need."

"True," Raven assented, already planning exactly how to cut off the Boy Wonder's arguments about her not helping out in the middle of a situation. "It would help to know more about the ghosts' personalities and powers."

"Alright, that I can help with," Danny sighed, "I could also give you a few tips on how to beat them without much trouble, but what it boils down to is that you are going to need a containment device. I could probably give you my spare Fenton Thermos for that."

"A thermos," the violet haired girl stated skeptically, an eyebrow arched dubiously.

"That was about my reaction, but it works," Danny shrugged, "It doesn't matter the size of the ghost, they'll be sucked into the thermos. You'll also need a miniature ghost portal to send them to the Ghost Zone, but I don't have one at home. I could probably send the schematics with you so that Cyborg could build one though."

"That sounds like a plan," Raven conceded, surprised at just how helpful the halfa was being. "To be honest, I didn't expect you to be this cooperative. I expected to have to drag the information on those ghosts out of you."

"And miss out on a chance to make sure that I don't have to use my powers anymore, are you kidding," the ghost boy chuckled.

"Good point, you have been adamant about not having anything more to do with your abilities," the dark titan sighed. She was surprised that he was outmaneuvering her verbally, a very rare occasion indeed.

"We can head to my apartment to get you the stuff after our talk," Danny nodded, a pained look crossing his features at the memories that he was willingly calling forth for the first time in months. "Here's what you need to know abut Skulker."

Raven listened with rapt attention at the ghost boy's thorough explanation of all of his previous enemies as they slowly made their way to his apartment.

She barely even noticed it when a small feeling of happiness came from the halfa, so completely overshadowed by his emotional scars as it was.


	5. Twisted Sister

A/N: Hey there peoples of the fanfiction community! Sorry that it has taken me so long to update, computer problems SUCK! However, I can honestly say that I'm pleased with how well this story is picking up with you, my readers. As of the time I started writing this chapter I have: 20 reviews, 4860 hits, 40 favs, and 43 alerts. I'm tickled pink that this fanfic is doing better than my previous works in a much shorter period of time. I had it pointed out to me in a review that there might be some confusion on how to pronounce Dani's super-name, so I'm changing it to reflect how it's supposed to be pronounced. Hopefully that will stop the spell-checker from yelling at me, lolz. I'm hoping that my all of you will enjoy this chapter as well, despite the wait. Please read and review.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Nighttime

* * *

"Star, I'm _so_ sorry that I wasn't able to fry that pink octopus thing!" Dani was busy apologizing to her one of her new friends as they rode up the elevator to the ops center/living room of Titan's Tower. Robin had to hide a smirk at her attempts to apologize to the ever smiling Starfire; even he knew that you couldn't expect to hit the bad guys _every_ time. "I'm not used to hitting things that are flying around that fast!"

"Do not worry friend Specter," the Tamaranean replied reassuringly, "Your attempts to bring down the creature gave much appreciated assistance to the efforts of rescuing me that all of you performed." It was at this time that the elevator doors opened to release the Titans, Starfire being first and foremost to exit, spinning in happiness none the less. "I am most happy with your timely rescue. Please join me as I recite the poem of gratitude…all six thousand verses!"

The other Titans paused in mid-step at that declaration. A pin drop could be heard in the ensuing silence that followed. Starfire looked at the gob-smacked, and quizzical in Robin's case, looks on her friends' faces.

It was at this time that Beast Boy noticed someone else in the room, and immediately voiced his thoughts on the stranger. "As cool as that sounds Star….does anyone else know who that total hottie on the couch is?"

Starfire tilted her head in confusion to the shapeshifter's question, completely lost at what he meant until a familiar voice that she hadn't heard in quite a while came from behind her. "Total hottie," the mysterious stranger smirked from the couch, "Not the first time I've heard that, but it never gets old." She then stood up from where she was sitting on the back on the couch with her arms spread wide.

"Sister," the red-haired Tamaranean cried as she rushed to hug her sister. "It's been so long since the last time I saw you Blackfire!"

"Yeah, it has been a while, hasn't it," Blackfire replied as she reached behind her back, "Some things never change though. Did you know that when we were kids I had to save her all the time?" Starfire blushed in embarrassment at having been reminded of the past like that.

"Nah, it's usually the little lady that does the saving," Cyborg chuckled. Robin's eyemask narrowed almost imperceptibly at the Blackfire's words, but quickly brushed it off.

"Before I forget," the black-haired Tamaranean drawled before pulling her hand from behind her back, revealing a green gem that was bigger than her fist, "Got a present for you."

Starfire gasped loudly at the sight of the gem. "A Centauri Moon Diamond? ! Where did you find this? !"

"On the Centauri moons of course," Blackfire smirked as she tied the gem around her sister's neck. Starfire grinned broadly at her gift, Beast Boy could swear he heard a cash register go off at that grin….but immediately shrugged it off as watching too many cartoons, as if that were possible.

"You must meet my friends," the younger Tamaranean exclaimed before dragging her chuckling sister to the other Titans. The four teens were still shocked at the revelation that Starfire had a sister, and that she had decided to drop by. Robin's eyemask narrowed as a thought crossed his mind, something which the elder Tamaranean didn't miss; she just wrote it off as unimportant.

"Well, seeing as how my sister already introduced me," Blackfire drawled, eliciting a sheepish grin and chuckled from said sister, "Let's see if I can figure out who is who from the descriptions she gave me on the vids she sent me." She walked up to the cybernetic Titan with a thoughtful finger on her chin. "I'm guessing you're Cyborg."

"Please to meet'cha little lady," the titanium Titan said with an extended hand. The black-haired Tamaranean smirked as she took the offered hand, and the sound of squealing, tortured metal ensued. After Blackfire released his hand, Cyborg lifted it, and hid the surprise on his face well from how smashed it was. "Little lady, big handshake! Least I know Star's not the only one," Cyborg chuckled good-naturedly. The elder Tamaranean chuckled again as she walked to the next Titan in line, a certain emerald changeling.

"Beast Boy, what's up man," Blackfire inquired with a playful smirk on her face.

"Nothing but the ceiling baby," Beast Boy replied, wiggling his eyebrows a little bit with the statement.

She laughed at his joke, "Good one! Starfire didn't tell me how funny you were!" Dani smirked as a thought came to her mind.

"What do ya know, Beast Boy, you beat the odds," the halfa smirked, "Somebody _actually _finds you funny!"

The emerald changeling gave the ghost girl an incredulous look before groaning, "**Man**, you've been spending way too much time around Rae!" This earned full-blown laughter from Cyborg.

"What, she's not here," Dani shrugged, "Somebody had to do it." At this the Boy Wonder joined his large friend in laughing at Beast Boy's expense.

Blackfire eyes widened at the sight of Dani for a moment, but quickly masked it to a friendlier look; something that Robin didn't fail to notice, but his unasked question would soon be answered. "I didn't know we had another Tamaranean here! Then again, I don't know any white haired Tamaraneans either."

Dani looked around her before pointing to herself, earning a nod and a raised eyebrow from the black-haired girl. "Who me? What makes you think that I'm a Tamaranean?"

The older girl didn't even bother to hide the incredulous look on her face this time. "What doesn't make me think you're a Tamaranean? You're skin has a color that I don't think is common among earthlings, your sclera have a green tint to them…then again, I've never seen a Tamaranean with a faint white glow around them before." Starfire looked at her sister in confusion before looking at Dani, only to gasp when Blackfire's observations made themselves obvious to her.

"What happened to you friend Specter? You're eyes did not look like that a few days ago and your skin was not slightly orange either," Starfire inquired, worry for her friend's health crossing her face.

"What are you two talking about," Dani questioned, obviously confused by the turn in the conversation, "You know that I'm a halfa Star. I don't have a Tamaranean bone in my body!" It was at this point that Robin pulled a small mirror out of his pocket and handed it to the girl so that she could see for herself. She gasped at the sight. "When did this happen?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing," Robin declared with his brows furrowed in concern. "_Definitely going to have to ask Raven about this when she gets back_," Robin thought to himself.

"Anyway," Blackfire declared, shaking off the surprise and small amount of relief she was feeling at the sight and the revelation, "Starfire didn't say anything about you in the vids."

"That is because she only did the appearing about a week ago, sister, to assist us in saving of the day and the reclaiming of our home," Starfire explained, causing her sister to raise an eyebrow at the unforeseen development, "Please meet friend Specter, she is a half human/half ghost hybrid."

"You _do_ realize that ghost's don't exist, right," the elder Tamaranean drawled.

Dani smirked in challenge, "You'd be surprised, there's a whole dimension _full_ of them."

"_Riiiiiight_," Blackfire stated before her eyes widened at Dani letting the white rings float over her body, transforming her to her normal state. She blinked in surprise looking at the clothes that Dani was wearing. "You look simply **fantastic**! Is that the current Earth fashion?"

"Pssh, of course," Dani scoffed, "Popularity is _so_ hard, you know?"

"Oh trust me, I know all too well," the elder Tamaranean smirked. Her eyes were drawn to the elevator doors opening, and a Raven that was still in her civvies and just taking off her beanie walked out of the open doors. The elder Tamaranean flew over to the dark titan, startling her slightly. "And you must be Raven."

"Yes, but who are you," the violet haired girl inquired, a delicate eyebrow arched curiously.

"Blackfire, I'm Starfire's older sister," the Tamaranean offered with a smug smirk. She then saw the gem on the dark titan's forehead. "I like that gemstone on your ashra chakra."

Raven's lips twitched almost imperceptibly into a very small smile as she set a metallic grey thermos with a green button and green band near the white cap down on the kitchenette counter, earning a raised eyebrow from the Boy Wonder. "You know about chakras?"

Blackfire rolled her wrist of-handedly as she replied to the dark titan's question. "I got way inot meditation on Altarra Prime."

"And she even thinks I'm funny," Beast Boy chirped happily, a wide grin on his face.

"Already covered you on that one Raven," Dani smiled at the dark titan.

"Regardless," Raven smirked to the ghost girl before turning to the emerald changeling, "Statistically, someone had to find you funny."

"_Dude_, **so** not fair," Beast Boy grumbled with his head slumping, much to the amusement of all those present. It was at this point that the Boy Wonder decided to walk up to the girls.

"Hi, I'm-"

"Robin," Blackfire interrupted. She decided to explain herself at the curious look on the masked teen's face, "Process of elimination." The elder Tamaranean gasped as she suddenly flew behind the Boy Wonder, lifting the cape with her hands. "Oh, I'm loving this cape! It's positively luscious!"

"Thanks, it's a high-density polymerized titanium, ten times stronger than steel," Robin replied, looking over to the girl before his eyemask narrowed slightly, "I'm just wondering though, how did you get into the tower?"

"The window was slightly open, so I thought I'd let myself in," Blackfire responded wryly, indicating the window that Starfire and Beast Boy used to exit the Tower when there was an emergency.

"Fair enough," Robin shrugged before making a mental note, "_Gotta ask Cyborg to fix that hole in security later. I could have sworn we set the Tower's defenses up when we left earlier_." Blackfire, however, continued on as though Robin hadn't asked her anything.

"And that mask," the elder Tamaranean stated as her face inched closer to the Boy Wonder's, "It makes you look so…mysterious."

"You noticed that too, huh," Dani commented with a roll of her eyes, before the widened in realization of something that she'd forgotten. The white rings quickly flew back over her form, transforming her into her Specter appearance once again. "Shit! I've gotta go check on Danny; see you guys later!" She quickly headed over to the window just as Cyborg threw in his two cents.

"Alright ghost girl, just don't get into another fight with him, a'ight," the titanium titan chuckled good-naturedly, "Not sure if any of us **could** break up another one of y'all's brawls!" Dani had the courtesy to rub the back of her head and laugh sheepishly before she turned intangible and flew out the window, much to the elder Tamaranean's surprise.

"Did she just…" Blackfire inquired, a look of blatant disbelief on her face as she pointed to the window that the halfa had just exited.

"Yes, sister, friend Specter is half ghost as we said," Starfire chipped in, a sly smile on her face at seeing her sister completely caught off-guard, "The ability to phase one's own molecular structure through solid matter is a trait that most apparitions share."

"She means that ghosts can pass through walls as if they weren't even there BB," Cyborg chuckled at the emerald changelings look of sheer stupidity as he answered his unasked question.

"I _so_ knew that Cy," Beast Boy groused at his friend's subtle ribbing, earning more laughter from the other Titans. Blackfire quickly shook off her shock at what she had just witnessed.

"Who's this Danny that she was talking about," the black haired girl inquired with a sly grin on her face. While asking this, she backed away from the masked teen, much to the other Tamaranean's hidden relief.

"Another halfa like her," Raven explained, "He has a lot more experience in the use of their powers, but he'd prefer to live like a normal person."

"Sounds boring," Blackfire stated blandly, not noticing the gleam that had entered the violet haired girl's eyes at this simple statement.

"I'm glad he isn't one of the bad guys," Beast Boy stated, shuddering at the thought of the obviously experienced older halfa going bad, "He could probably whoop all our asses in a fight!" Robin and Cyborg nodded their silent agreement to the shapeshifter's statement as Raven merely rolled her eyes at his antics.

"Yes, their shared abilities are very powerful, but he has more powers from what I have observed," Starfire agreed, positioning herself between her sister and the masked titan. "So tell me sister, why is it that you have visited Earth?"

"I was in the quadrant and decided to see if earthlings like to party," the Tamaranean shrugged in reply. Raven narrowed her eyes slightly at the drawl that the black haired girl seemed to use for everything. Something about this Blackfire just unsettled her. The Tamaranean then walked over to the couch and quickly hopped over the back of it. "Besides, I needed a rest; nearly got sucked into a black hole here," she continued nonchalantly. The three males looked at each other and seemed to teleport over to her side, inquiring further about the black hole incident. "Oh and Starfire, could you get me one of these _sodas_ I've heard so much about?" She then started to regale the three titans the tale of her travel through a black hole ridden nebula on the way to Earth, acting as though it had been no big deal.

Raven followed her friend to kitchenette and put a kettle of water to boil as Starfire got a soda for her sister. "I see you haven't changed either," Starfire grumbled, closing the fridge with a soda in hand.

"She's always been this way," Raven inquired, looking through the cabinets for some of her herbal tea. "_Why didn't I think to get a cup of tea to go while at was at the café…_," she thought to herself.

"Yes, my sister has always been one to do the showing off," the redhead grumbles as she floated over to her sister to hand her the drink.

"_Guess I'll talk to Robin later_," Raven sighed internally, glancing over at the thermos sitting on the counter, "_And Cyborg, I wouldn't have believed that thermos was a high-tech containment device if he hadn't let me catch him for a moment to show me. That has to be at __**least**__ a level five containment device considering his abilities._" It was about that time that Starfire floated back to the dark titan.

"How was your journey into the city, friend Raven," the Tamaranean inquired, a curious expression plastered on her face.

"It was….enlightening," Raven explained, "On a variety of levels."

"And what is this device that you have brought back with you," Starfire inquired further, picking up the thermos to emphasize her point.

"That's a containment tool called the Fenton Thermos," Raven responded, deciding to continue at the widening of her green eyed friend's eyes. "It only works on ghosts Starfire, don't worry. I was hoping that Cyborg would be able to reverse engineer it so that we could each have one in case of a ghost attack."

"That sounds like a marvelous idea," the Tamaranean cried out in joy, setting the device on the table with a look of wonder in her eyes. "But how can this contain incorporeal beings that possess the ability to pass through solid objects as though they were air?"

"Danny didn't explain exactly how it does works, but I'm guessing that it emits an energy field that neutralizes a spirit's abilities," Raven shrugged as she finally found her box of herbal tea. "I also got a list of all the enemies he has ever fought and how he usually ends up beating them. I have to say, even when he was an untested hero he was capable of coming up with rather brilliant plans given enough time."

"It sounds as though you have gotten the time to gather much information on the Phantom," Starfire giggled, seeing an opening in the dark titan's usually impenetrable verbal defenses, "Perhaps you have gotten to know more about his abilities than just those from the midst of battle?"

Raven, to her credit, did not start sputtering indignantly at the barb that her friend had so gracefully given her, although a slight red hue did dust her cheeks. Instead she stopped her movements and dropped her opened box of herbal tea, scattering tea leaves everywhere in the kitchenette. She slowly turned her head to face the red haired Tamaranean, only to see the most innocent look on her face. "Starfire, short of Robin, Danny has more experience at performing heroics than all of us combined. I merely think it's wise to learn from his past battles," she sighed, covering the tea leaves in her ebon power to redeposit them in the box before smirking slightly. "Besides, I figured that you would be the one that has the most information of what a certain someone can do outside of battle," Raven quipped, pointing her obvious barb at the Boy Wonder. It was all the Tamaranean could do to keep herself from shouting out in surprise at the comment; that didn't stop her face from matching the color of her hair though.

Raven called that a win and went back to making her tea. It was good to be the queen of snappy comebacks.

* * *

Jump City, Fenton Apartment

* * *

"Danny, I'm home," the younger halfa declared as she closed the door behind her. She really hated hiking up the twenty floors of stair to get to their top floor apartment, but the view was **killer**. She noticed immediately that the lights weren't on in the living room. "_That's odd. I usually end up turning those off before I go to bed when Danny goes out to the Midnight Latte. Guess he got home early, weird_." She shrugged her shoulders and went to the kitchen to get something to eat. "Man, I really need better training. I guess that tomorrow I'll go back to the Tower and see what Robin can cook up. I bet he'd be able to find a way to help me out," Dani sighed as she made herself a ham sandwich before heading into her room for the night.

She never even noticed the small camera that had followed her all the way home that had implanted itself into the far corner of the living room, just lying in wait.

* * *

Outer Space, Earth's Orbit, Centauri Cruiser

* * *

The officer wearing a crimson metallic shell sighed as he watched the probes return. They had been attempting to find their target for many months with no luck. Why was it always him and his partner that got sent out to search for escaped prisoners? And this one was Tamaranean to boot!

Damn those Tamaraneans and their ability to cross interstellar distances without the aid of a space cruiser. It always made them like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Stupid troqs.

He was brought up short, however, when the probes came back without anything. All three of the four they sent out. He didn't find it unusual that only three would have come back. It doesn't matter how durable or indestructible you construct something to be, there will always be some unforeseen hostile condition that will destroy them. He turned to his ally and sighed, "It looks like the probes have failed, again. Why did we even use these probes anyway? All we need to do is track down the distinctive signature that Tamaraneans give off!"

"Troqs are too efficient at hiding to do that. Besides, the probes haven't failed," his similarly crimson shell ally responded.

That brought him up short. "What do you mean? They failed to bring anything back with them!"

"An absence can be more telling than the presence of something," his ally chuckled as he brought up the probe's last known location on the vid-screen, showing a blue-green planet in sector 2814, Earth. "The probe was sent to Earth and went missing; that's where we'll find the girl." Behind his mask, the officer grinned as he set the cruiser on course to Earth.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Afternoon

* * *

Starfire was walking through the halls, heading towards the living room. She was looking for someone in particular. She had seen Raven talking to Robin after her sister had finished her storytelling, probably telling him what had happened when she had went out last night. But, that wasn't what was on her mind at the moment. "Sister? Where are you, I seek your companionship!" With that she entered the common room. She off-handedly remembered Cyborg's original response to seeing the room and giggled. "_This room isn't _that_ large. Maybe half the size of the throne room on my home planet though_." She frowned when she didn't see Blackfire, but perked up at the sight of Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Dani playing the video games on the couch.

Or rather, she was giggling at Cyborg and Beast Boy getting beat at a racing game by Dani.

"Aw MAN, how'd you get so good dawg," Cyborg groaned, "It's like nobody can touch you!"

"'Cept for Blackfire," Beast Boy moaned, "It was like we didn't even exist when you two were schooling us!"

Dani looked at both of the boy's, an obviously manufactured look of surprise on her face. The Tamaranean had to cover her mouth lest her giggles turned into a full-blown laughing fit. "Huh, both of you are still playing? I thought you left hours ago!" She couldn't help it; Starfire was rolling on the ceiling with her powerful laughter. Dani was the only one to look at the airborne redhead, her fingers still moving the controls. The two official titans decided to take this as their opportunity to try and beat the ghost girl.

"Hey Star," Dani declared, deftly forcing Beast Boy off the track as she greeted the Tamaranean. "Besides you, what's up?" Even though he had just been defeated without any thought whatsoever, the emerald shapeshifter couldn't help but laugh at the ghost girl's question.

Cyborg, however, was balking at what he had just seen happen; his processors were burning trying to figure out just how she was beating them so easily on **their own system!** If it had been some other system, he could chalk it up to cheating, but he _knew_ his system was clean of any hacks. He just couldn't figure it out. There was _no_ way that a girl could beat him and BB at a video game, but here was the proof that it could and would happen!

Starfire carefully extracted herself from the ceiling once her laughing fit was over. The ghost girl just shook her head at the girl as she waited patiently. Cyborg's groaning at having just lost to somebody who wasn't paying attention was just icing on the cake, really. "I am searching for Blackfire," Starfire declared as her feet touched down on the ground, "I was hoping to find her here but I have not. Do you know where she might be?"

"Blackfire," Dani grinned, "You mean that black haired girl that was possibly the _best_ match I've had short of my brother? She left a little while back; don't know where she went though."

"Didn't she say she was goin' to the gym to practice some of mad alien fu skills," Beast Boy piped up.

"Oh yeah, Robbie was wantin' to learn some of her moves," the cybernetic teen agreed. "Man, he got real interested when she was tellin' us about some of the battles she's in. That girl's got _game_!"

Starfire's mood fell somewhat at the boy's declaration. "_Robin went to the gymnasium to learn the combat maneuvers from my sister_," the Tamaranean thought with a forlorn look on her face. The boys were ignorant of the look on her face, but the halfa picked up on it pretty fast.

"Come on Star, why don't I help you look for your sis," Dani declared as she hopped over the couch, "I had something to ask Robin anyway."

"Afraid we'll whoop your butt this time," the emerald changeling goaded the halfa.

"As if! Why don't you practice with somebody more on your level," Dani quipped, "Like, maybe a kid fresh out of their diapers?" The girls couldn't help but giggle at the indignant sputtering the boys were making. "Least you guys are helping me with my banter. Come on Star, let's go see if Blackfire's in the gym." With a smile on her face, pleased with herself for beating the boys **again** at a game of their choosing, she left with the Tamaranean to go find her missing sister.

"Man, first it was Raven's comebacks that we had to look out for and now we've gotta watch for Dani's witty retorts," Cyborg groaned, "We really need to work on our banter!"

Beast Boy just sniffed as he watched the two girls leave, "It's like she's video game Jesus…"

Dani and Starfire were walking down the hall to the gym four floors below the common room before the Tamaranean asked the halfa a question that had been bugging her on their little journey. "Tell me friend Specter, what is it that you desired to inquire Robin about?"

It only took Dani a moment to sort through Starfire garbled English before she responded, "Well, that last fight taught me that I have a lot I need to learn. I'm hoping that he can come up with something to help me with my aiming problems. It was kinda embarrassing that I couldn't hit that probe with my ghost rays…."

"Why didn't you inquire the Phantom about the assistance," the red haired girl inquired, a confused look on her face.

The halfa gave Starfire a flat look before responding. "Um, don't you remember what happened last time I asked him for help training? It was less than a week ago y'know."

Starfire's face was dusted a faint red tinge at her own slip. "I merely assumed that since you two possess a sibling relationship that he would be eager to assist you with matters that he is more experienced in."

"Yeah, but he doesn't want anything to do with his powers anymore," Dani grumbled, "Me and Vlad are trying to get him to wanna be a hero again, but we've had no luck so far."

A puzzled look crossed the Tamaranean's tanned face. "I am confused; who is this Vlad of which you speak," she asked her currently raven haired friend.

Dani's mind worked overtime as she realized her slip. "_Crap, Danny doesn't want that bit of info __getting loose__!_" She quickly responded, rubbing the back of her head, "Vlad's our legal guardian. He was an old friend of Danny's parents before the accident happened."

"Oh, yes! Excuse me but it had slipped my mind that you were a clone and not the Phantom's sister," the Tamaranean blushed at her mental slip. "You two act so much like siblings that i-" She was cut off when she heard her own sister's voice and saw her shadow getting close to Robin's.

"Now you go like this," Blackfire stated, grabbing the Boy Wonder's shoulders, much to Starfire's displeasure, "And HIYAA!" With a shout, she threw Robin, spinning madly in the air before he landed with a loud thud into the wall some thirty feet away and slid down onto a set of weights for those without insane levels of super-strength.

As Robin got up from his crash landing, his eyes spinning underneath the thin white gauze of his eyemask, Blackfire continued her explanation of the throw she used. "Learned that from a tarbenzou master on Tairus 3. It's a good move to use on those with a higher center of gravity."

The crimson haired Tamaranean and the halfa both quickly stepped into the expansive gym, easily large enough to fit four Olympic sized pools, before Starfire piped up loudly. "Robin…and sister, I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Not at all," the Boy Wonder replied, having recovered from the throw already, "She was just showing me some of her alien martial arts moves. Why haven't you ever shown me any?"

"Probably because she doesn't know any," Blackfire chuckled derisively, earning a light glare from the halfa, "She always did try to stay away from a fight whenever she could. Then again, I always was the better fighter. Come on, I'll show you a technique I once used to stop a rampaging blarthax." Putting word to deed, the elder Tamaranean quickly led Robin to another corner of the gym.

"What a jerk," Dani grumbled loudly, "I may be in the popular club at school, but at least I don't try to make other people feel like their worthless!" She turned to her friend to see a crestfallen look on the Tamaranean's face. A plan to cheer up the red haired girl before quickly popped into her mind. "C'mon Starfire, let's go to the mall, my treat." The Tamaranean thought it over for a moment before nodding in agreement. The two quickly left to go to the mall downtown, but Robin caught their conversation and his brow creased slightly in worry.

The fact that Blackfire's face was adorned with a scowl at the other two girls exit also was not lost on the Boy Wonder.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Evening

* * *

"Oh man, this is gonna be _awesome_," Dani squealed in delight, "A movie marathon with all the best foods: popcorn, candy, pizza, and ice cream!"

Starfire giggled at her friend, "Yes, the viewing of the moving pictures shall be a most wondrous way to spend the night among our friends!" They entered the common room, having just come back from their trip to the mall, to see the other titans sitting on the couch. "Come friends; let us watch the moving pictures together! We have obtained the unhealthy snack foods to make this a most glorious night!" Dani was cheerfully putting away the food they had brought with them, having just put the ice cream in the freezer, when the other Tamaranean entered the room…wearing Starfire's clothes.

"Forget the movies kids," the black haired girl proclaimed, earning a scowl from the halfa, "Let's go out on the town and party!"

"Sister, why are you wearing my clothes," Starfire inquired, her voice almost a growl.

Blackfire shrugged with a smug look on her face. "Raided your wardrobe," she offered with her eyes rolling.

"Aw yeah! A party sounds killer," Cyborg crowed, already leaping over the couch with Beast Boy fast on his heels.

"Yeah, I've heard that there's supposed to be a rave going on near the docks," Beast Boy cheered. Raven, however, just shrugged and floated over to the elevator door.

"You guys go on ahead, I need to talk to Specter about something real fast," Robin stated, noticing the scowl on Dani's face, "We'll catch up."

"Come on Robin," the black haired Tamaranean drawled, "Don't let that wet blanket slow you down. You don't know what you're missing!" She winked conspiratorially to the Boy Wonder. Starfire gasped at the look while the only thing keeping the halfa from lunging at the girl was Robin's hands being raised in an effort to placate the girls. Raven decided to shoot a brief dark look at the elder Tamaranean before exiting the room.

"It won't take a minute," Robin offered, "I'll have Specter fly us over as soon as we're done." Blackfire's eyes narrowed slightly, but she relented with a shrug and left via the elevator, the other Titans in tow. They waited until the rest of the group was out of earshot before they started talking.

"I'll show her wet blanket," Dani growled, her eyes glowing brighter and her hands clenching.

"I've noticed there seems to be some tension between you two," Robin stated, keeping a neutral look on his face, "Wanna talk about it?"

"She been a total _**bitch**_ to Star since she got here," Dani shouted, "It's like she's trying to break her spirit! I can't _stand_ stuck-up primadonnas like her!"

Robin nodded to the halfa, "I've noticed that too. I just chalked it up to sibling rivalry until earlier in the gym. When you two left I noticed that she sent a scowl at you two. I'm starting to think that her visit wasn't just a coincidence."

"You _think_," Dani screeched, "I took Starfire out to the mall earlier to get her away from her sister and try to cheer her up! We even had that movie marathon lined out to make her happy, and her _sister_ just goes and tramples all over that! And now she decides to snub me because I'm not going with her plans like a puppet! She just makes me-_grrrrah_!"

"I know how you feel," Robin offered, "Listen, I'll talk to her and see what's going on from her end. It's obvious that Starfire's uncomfortable with the way her sister has been acting, and I appreciate you trying to cheer her up. Just don't let her get to you, okay?"

The ghost girl pouted at Robin's words, but eventually relented. "Alright, but if she tries anything else I **won't** be held accountable for my actions."

Robin smirked, nodding his head in agreement. "Just try not to destroy the city to get at her. Now come on, we've got a party to get to." The Boy Wonder almost let a look of worry cross his features at the predatory gleam that the halfa had in her eyes as she picked him up for the ride that he'd only heard stories about from Beast Boy.

He'd never doubt Beast Boy when it came to the halfa ever again.

* * *

Jump City, Warehouse 29, Nighttime

* * *

The music was blaring loudly as Robin and Dani phased through the wall. His face was slightly green because of the speed they'd been travelling at; he was just thankful that the halfa had slowed down from "Drunken Frat Boy" speeds to "Not Going to Die From This…Probably" speeds as they neared their destination. "_And I thought Beast Boy was exaggerating! If anything, he was __**downplaying**__ the speed Dani travels at_," Robin thought to himself as he caught his breath. He caught his bearings just in time to growl at two teens that were trying to hit on the red-haired Tamaranean.

"I was not aware that we were supposed to bring shovels," Starfire responded to one of the boy's comments, only to blush in embarrassment when they started to laugh at her. Robin smiled softly at her antics, secretly thankful that her mastery of the English language was dubious at best.

"Ooh, I love this song," Dani cried out as she floated over to the dance floor, "Don't get lost in the crowd, okay!" With that, the younger halfa disappeared into the crowd. Robin could only shake his head at her antics. When the Boy Wonder saw Starfire floating over to an exit, he decided to see what was wrong with his friend.

How was he supposed to know that a pair of dark eyes was following his movements, or the smirk that was underneath them?

* * *

Jump City, Warehouse 29, Roof, Nighttime

* * *

"_Perhaps if I leave, my friends would not notice_," Starfire ruminated, not surprised at the depressing turn that her thoughts had taken, "_With _Blackfire_ here, why would they need me? She is better than me at everything that I do. She can fight better, she's more outgoing, she can make the humorous comments better….perhaps it would be better if I left_." That last thought brought a bitter sigh out of the Tamaranean's lips, "Perhaps, I do not belong here." Her thoughts had left her completely oblivious to the world around her; as such it came as a complete surprise to her when Robin spoke from the same exit that she had just used.

"Of course not," the Boy Wonder declared, "You should be down there having fun with the rest of us. What's wrong?"

Starfire put on a mask of false happiness for her dear friend before she replied, "Nothing is wrong. Everything is wonderful: the pounding music and blinding lights are quite enjoyable!" Robin watched the red-haired girl carefully as her smile slipped from false cheer right down into sorrow, his eyemask narrowing slightly at the change in emotions. He had hoped not to have to see such dejection grace her lovely features. "Everything is not wonderful," Starfire sighed, "I am very happy to see my sister, but I cannot help but feel the jealousy. She rules the video games, she knows the cool moves, she knows how to do the mingling with earthlings, and she knows when people are not talking about shovels."

Robin couldn't help but lift an eyebrow to that last one. "_I really need to talk Cyborg into teaching her more about slang_," Robin mused to himself.

Starfire released one last sigh, "And I am nothing like her."

"_Ah, so that's what's got her down. _ _She thinks that we like her sister better than her_," Robin thought to himself, quickly coming up with a plan to perk the depressed girl up. "No, of course you aren't," Starfire lifted her head to look Robin in the eye as he spoke consolingly to her, "I think that you-"

"What do you think," Blackfire inquired as she floated out of one of the skylights on the roof with a pink wig over her hair. She looked to the Boy Wonder alluringly, knowing but not caring that she was interrupting something.

"Pink," Robin replied flatly, but kept his other comments about the unwanted interruption to himself, "Look, could you give us a moment here? We're kinda in the middle of something."

The elder Tamaranean had a disinterested look on her face…up until the moment the music changed. "Ooh, I love this song," she declared happily as she grabbed Robin and pulled him through the open skylight down to the dance floor below before he could protest.

"_If you've only been on Earth for three days now, and you've spent most of that time at the Tower,_" Robin thought as his eyemask narrowed in suspicion, "_How could you have heard this song before?_" The Boy Wonder spotted Dani on the dance floor and caught her eyes for a moment. He took that brief moment to nod his head towards the roof, hoping that she'd get the message. He hid his relief very well when she vanished from sight, catching the other part of his discrete message.

On the roof, Starfire sighed at the departure of her dear friend. She had hoped to hear what he thought of her, but scowled when she realized that her _sister_ had decided to ruin the moment for her.

"Penny for your thoughts," a disembodied, but familiar voice asked from behind her.

Yes, Starfire was very proud of herself when her shriek was **not** loud enough to shatter the glass right beside her.

She turned around just as a laughing Dani was becoming visible again. "Do not do that! It is most impolite to scare somebody like that," the Tamaranean reprimanded the halfa. Dani had the decency to look ashamed of her actions.

"Sorry 'bout that Star, had to find some way to bring you out of your funk," the ghost girl apologized, "But seriously, what's got you down?"

"Well," Starfire started to explain before she gasped loudly. Dani looked at her questioningly, before the Tamaranean pointed behind her. "Look out!"

Dani turned around and groaned loudly, "Again! I swear, pink has to be the most evil color in existence!" The young halfa quickly sheathed her hands in spheres of ectoplasm, hoping that if nothing else the green glow would be noticed by the other Titans. "Star, call the others; I'll try to give you the time you need to do that…SHIT!" The red-haired girl couldn't help but agree as two more joined the first. Starfire quickly grasped her communicator and pressed the panic button, hoping that her friends would arrive fast enough to help.

In the warehouse, Cyborg's human eye widened when he started picking up the panic frequency of the Titans' communicators….from right above him? "_Say wha…OH SHIT_," the cybernetic teen thought to himself as he looked up to see why he was picking up a distress signal. "BB, Star's in trouble," Cyborg shouted to be heard over the music pounding in his robotic ears.

Beast Boy's head snapped to the skylights at Cyborg's call. His eyes widened as he started running for the nearest exit, Cyborg hot on his heels. "**Man**, why is it that the bad guys only attack when we're havin' fun," the emerald changeling whined.

"Less talk more hustle, grass stain," Cyborg declared, thankful that his proximity alert detected the signals given off by Robin and Raven's communicators following behind them. The four teens quickly made their way outside, where Beast Boy turned into a pterodactyl to give his titanium teammate a lift while Raven did the same for Robin by manifesting a plane of her ebon energy to support the two of them.

"Starfire! Specter," Robin cried out to the two girls that seemed to be fighting a losing battle. The two girls were floating in the air, spinning slowly with their backs touching one another. Both of them were unleashing green blasts of energy on the three 'pink octopus things' with reckless abandon, just trying to land a hit on them but even when their blasts connected they seemed to just slide right off the sides. When one of the enemies would near the two girls, Dani would instinctively turn herself and Starfire intangible, forcing the creature to pass right through them. The Boy Wonder had never been as thankful of Dani's special abilities as he was at that moment, although he did see that she seemed to be wearing herself out more quickly than the Tamaranean was. "Titans, help them out," the masked teen ordered.

Robin quickly jumped off the plane of energy onto the roof to allow Raven to be at her fighting best. He pulled out a four birdarangs and launched them at his opponents with all his strength. He smirked when he managed to cut off two of the arms of one of the robots and one from a second. He quickly quashed the warm feeling he got when Starfire shot him a look of relief.

There'd be time to focus on stuff like that **after** the battle.

It was at about this time that Robin's eyes widened slightly when a green rhino fell from the sky on top of one of the pink robots, dropping it through the roof. Of course, the blue beam of condensed sound did nothing to stop him from worrying about Beast Boy and any civilians that might have gotten caught up in his little stunt, but that's beside the point. It was about the time that the attempted kidnapper that only had two of its limbs remaining got batted away by a giant T wreathed in black energy that a thought crossed the Boy Wonder's mind.

"_Where's Blackfire? I know I told her what was happening_," Robin thought with a furrowed brow, his mind connecting dots and not liking the picture he was getting so far, "_It's almost as though she doesn't care what happens to her sister…no that's not right. It's more like sh-_" His train of thought was cut off by said girl choosing that moment to float out of the skylight. His eyebrow arched when she casually gazed at the pink robot that was getting blasted by Cyborg, Specter, and Starfire simultaneously and then seemed to look at the robot that was just returning with disinterest. Robin's eyes almost popped out of their sockets when she fired two short laser bursts out of her _eyes_ and destroyed their opponents without any apparent concern. The explosions that the two pink robots made as they were destroyed scattered their parts all over the roof. He was pretty sure from the way that oversized neon letter dropped from the dark titan's telekinetic grasp that he wasn't the only one that was surprised.

"Nice shot," the cybernetic titan called out cheerfully as his sonic cannon reconfigured itself back into a hand.

"Lucky shot," Raven admitted to the elder Tamaranean; was it just him, or did the Boy Wonder hear some wary respect in the dark titan's normal monotone.

It was after all of this happened that a green owl flew through the still open skylight and transformed back into the elfin form of Beast Boy. "Huh, what'd I miss after I flattened that robot," the emerald changeling inquired the group of gathered teens.

"Blackfire here just _wasted_ those 'bots that were trying to nab Star again in a single shot **each** BB," Cyborg crowed triumphantly.

"_**Dude**_, that's sweet," the green shapeshifter declared emphatically, "You beat Rambo _any _day Blackfire!"

Robin's eyemask, however, narrowed at this new piece of information, "How did you know where to hit them?"

"Lucky guess," the elder Tamaranean shrugged nonchalantly. The withering glare that Specter was shooting the black-haired girl from behind her back told him that he wasn't the only one that wasn't convinced.

"_With how you looked around the battlefield first, I'm willing to bet that luck had nothing to do with it_," the Boy Wonder snorted mentally.

"We could use luck like that," Cyborg declared boisterously, "Maybe you should join the team!"

"Me, a Teen Titan," Blackfire proclaimed with casual interest and a hand to her chest; the masked teen almost missed the slight gleeful glint in her eyes as she glanced at her gasping sister. Robin almost felt like applauding at the performance; if it weren't for the sheer number of things that weren't adding up, he was sure that he would have missed every tell sign the older girl was giving.

"_I'm sure of it now_," Robin thought as he schooled his face into neutrality, "_She hates Starfire_."

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Roof, Four Hours Later

* * *

Starfire gave one last mournful look at the city and the door to the roof before strapping on her backpack. "She'd make a better Titan than I ever could," she muttered under her breath as she floated into the air, looking into the starry sky high above her. Once again, her ruminations left her oblivious to the door opening behind her.

"Were you going to leave without saying goodbye," Robin inquired as he walked out onto the roof. The Tamaranean turned wide, surprised eyes onto the Boy Wonder.

"Yeah Star," Dani stated from her spot floating right behind the masked titan, "You really think that we're just gonna let you fly away without at least a goodbye?" Starfire hugged herself and turned her head in shame before floating down to the two teens and collapsing into Robin's arms.

"Robin, Specter, I thought that with my sister here, you wouldn't want me around any more," the red-haired girl stated with her head still turned to the side in shame.

"What kind of friends do you take us for," Dani stated with a hurt look on her face.

Robin's face relaxed as he declared, "Starfire, I-," only to be cut off as a green tentacle plowed into him, sending him careening away from the two shocked girls. The Tamaranean gasped as the tentacle then wrapped around her, binding the struggling girl tight.

"**Starfire**," Robin and Dani shouted in unison as they both chased after the red-haired girl and the aircraft that was taking her away. Robin leaped off the edge of the roof a second before Dani flew off the side, reaching for the struggling Tamaranean, only for his fingers to miss her foot as gravity reasserted its control over the flightless bird. Once again he was thankful for the ghost girl's presence when she picked him out of the air and gave chase to the escaping vehicle.

As the girl that the harsh mistress called gravity had no hold over gave chase with Robin in tow, the Boy Wonder took out his communicator and flipped it open, keying it to the wide frequency that would affect all other active communicators. "Titans, Starfire's in trouble! I'm using my communicator as a beacon so you can follow," Robin proclaimed into the yellow device before putting it away. He had other things to worry about than just how fast the other Titans could converge on his position.

The vessel that was taking away Starfire being one of the top other things he was worried about.

* * *

Centauri Police Vessel, 14,000 Feet Above Jump City

* * *

The armored alien at the controls for the retrieval vessel pressed a button to activate the imprisonment array especially calibrated for Tamaraneans. "Prepare to leave Earth orbit," he declared, "We have the Tamaranean girl." He had been confused when the sensors had picked up two additional Tamaranean energy signatures, but wrote it off as a computer malfunction. There was only one of the troqs that was known to be inhabiting this back-water world, and the one that they had captured was wearing the tracking beacon that had been placed within the moon diamond. There was no way they could be mistaken about which one was there target! After all, the Centauri Police did not make it public knowledge that they placed those beacons in the diamonds they placed on their prisoners.

Now that would just be stupidity at its finest.

The other red armored alien standing guard over their prisoner leered at the girl, even though it was almost impossible to tell through the helmet, a fact he lamented. How were you supposed to properly intimidate your prisoners when they couldn't see your face? ! "When we get back to Centauri, you will pay for what you have done," he stated darkly as he looked down at Starfire. She continued to mumble and struggle through the restraints helplessly.

Yes, this was the part of the job that he loved the most; no doubt about it.

Robin rolled to his feet as he was dropped onto the surface of the alien vessel. "You're not taking my friend anywhere," he declared boldly as he stared down red-plated kidnapper. He watched as Dani phased through the bottom of the device that was containing their Tamaranean friend and dragged her through it intangibly, leaving the green tentacle behind.

"No, the prisoner," the officer manning the controls shouted, getting the attention of his ally. There was no way that this second intruder could be a Tamaranean! The onboard sensors had to be on the fritz! No troq had the ability to pass through solid matter! If he didn't have to keep a careful eye on the controls, he'd give assistance to his partner, but some things just cannot be helped.

"Hrrrrah," the combat-ready officer roared as he swung at the pitiful earthling before him, only to be surprised when the spandex-clad teen leaped over him, performing a flip in the process. "_Oh, it's on now you galactic bumpkin! No one makes a fool out of the Centauri Police_," he growled mentally as he swung his clawed arm at the Boy Wonder. This time the earthling only sidestepped his attack and struck at his elbow, his smaller foot finding its way into one of his suit's few weak points. The Centauri Police Officer grunted in mild plane as the earthling backed up to the starboard side of the craft and took a martial artist stance.

"C'mon big buy," Robin waved the much larger armor clad figure in, "That **can't** be all you've got."

"Silence, you damn hairless ape," the armored clad officer roared as he leveled his clawed right arm at the Boy Wonder and fired a tentacle at him. The smirk that had formed on his face died a painful death when the _child_ moved his cape into the path of the tentacle, only for it to bounce off and strike the nearby engine instead. He growled when the two females chose this time to re-emerge from the depths of the ship with a….few circuit boards….in their…hands…."_Aw fuck_."

Needless to say, he already had his boots magnetized to the ship's surface when it started to descend at a sickeningly fast rate.

"I cannot control it," the helmsman cried out as he struggled futilely to level out the ship and get it back into the air. He was maybe just a touch too distracted to see the unknown female phase the circuit boards into the containment unit from underneath. Just as the helmsman managed to level out the vessel so that they wouldn't crash nose first into the ground, the Tamaranean grabbed the Boy Wonder and took flight. She was quickly followed by their white-haired ally as all three of them followed the ship's course.

The three teens landed almost daintily on the ground just as the ship they had all been standing on crashed into the ground with deafening noise.

"Star, Robin, Specter," Beast Boy called out. The three teens turned around to see the other Titans approaching them quickly from the air. The Boy Wonder and Dani both narrowed their eyes dangerously at the notable absence of Starfire's sister.

"You guys okay," Cyborg inquired worriedly. A shifting of the rubble drew the attention of all six teens. All of their eyes grew wide as they watched the two armored figures dig themselves out of the rubble and approach them.

"Titans, get ready," Robin commanded as each of the Titans got ready for a fight, Cyborg even going so far as to configure his arm into his signature sonic cannon.

The two armored figures stopped a few feet away from the assembled teens, and the one that had been attacking Robin reached into his shoulder guard with his left hand. "In the name of the Grand Centauri Empire, you are all under arrest," he declared boldly.

Beast Boy's comment summed up all of their thoughts and dumbfounded looks accurately. "Uh, you can't be the good guys; we're the good guys."

"And we are the Centauri Police," the heavily armed policeman declared authoritatively. Not for the last time, he would mentally curse the standard helmets they wore hiding their faces from view.

"The Tamaranean girl is a liar and a thief," the armored helmsman nearly shouted, "And she has committed crimes throughout the entire Centauri System!"

"But I have never even been to the Centauri Moons," Starfire declared with a puzzled look on her face as she turned to her friends. That was when the final piece of the puzzle clicked into place in Robin's mind as he reached out for the gem that the red-haired girl still wore around her neck.

"But I know somebody who has," the Boy Wonder proclaimed as he untied the Centauri moon diamond from around the Tamaranean's neck. Starfire gasped as the other Titan's widened their eyes in shock at Robin's accusation.

"I _**knew**_ there was something not right with that cold-hearted **bitch**," Dani growled as he eyes glowed white, eliciting another gasp from the Tamaranean, "She was _trying _to make you feel so bad that you'd leave and take her place in prison!" She turned around and saw a silhouette take off into the air. She was just about to take off herself when an orange skinned hand came to rest on her shoulder.

"Please do not do the flying off of the handle, friend Specter," Starfire stated, her own eyes glowing with a brilliant green hue, "I believe that I must have the **words** with my sister." Dani smirked as her eyes halted their pearlescent glow. Her smirk became downright sinister when the Tamaranean flew after Blackfire, her eyes leaving twin comet trails of bright green energy.

Robin turned back to the Centauri Police and threw them the gem, "You've been chasing the wrong girl. As Specter pointed out, Blackfire was trying to make her sister take the fall for her crimes. She probably gave Starfire that moon diamond to throw you off of her trail and set you on her sister's instead." This time the armed police officer was glad that the helmet was there, how else would he have hidden his surprise at an Earthling figuring out there was a tracking device in the crystal.

"_Man__**! **_There's gonna be a catfight in the sky, and I'm **so** gonna miss it," Beast Boy moaned as he turned to look at Starfire's fast approach of her sister. He had no way of seeing the gloved hand smacking him in the back of the head, but heard the other's laughter nonetheless.

"How do we know they won't both try to run," the armed police officer asked forcefully.

"Trust me, she won't," Robin replied with a smirk as he looked up to the two girls just as they met in midair.

* * *

Jump City, Outskirts, 20,000 Feet Above Ground

* * *

Starfire flew in front of her wayward sister's path, her eyes still glowing an almost acidic green with her righteous fury. Blackfire was shocked at her sudden appearance, but schooled her features into those of innocence quickly. "Hello, sister," Starfire declared as she floated in front of her elder sister, her arms crossed and eyes glowing.

"Aw, you're mad," Blackfire stated as she tried to find a way out of her current predicament, "I know, I should have told you I was leaving, but you know how I hate goodbyes and-"

"You are a criminal," Starfire interrupted hotly, "And you were going to let me take your place in jail!"

"_Shit! I was hoping to be off-world before she figured that out_," the elder Tamaranean cursed mentally before replying as though nothing were wrong. "Oh, well…yeah." Blackfire backed away a few feet when Starfire started poking her chest.

"You **will** give back what you've stolen, and you **will** turn yourself in to the police," Starfire commanded of her sister.

"_Oh no, you won't get your way _this_ time princess_," Blackfire mentally ground out before rebutting verbally, "Oh, and what will **you** do to make me?" The elder Tamaranean's eyes glowed a soft violet hue as she powered up a similar colored starbolt, launching it to blast her sister at point blank range. With a cry of pain, Starfire tumbled down from her elder sister. "I always was the better fighter," Blackfire declared smugly.

The red-haired girl stopped her violent decent and looked at her sister with eyes blazing with righteous fury. "Not anymore," she stated hotly as she flew at her black-haired sister. With those words, Starfire flew right at her elder sister, starbolts glowing like miniature suns in her hands.

Blackfire charged a large starbolt in her hands and fired off the soft violet energy as a beam. Her younger sister spun around the beam and threw her own orbs of energy at her elder as fast and often as she could. Blackfire returned her fire by splitting beam into a machine-gun pace of launched starbolts to shoot down what was coming at her, only to shoot lasers out of her eyes to keep her own offensive going.

Starfire crossed her arms in front of her face as she circled around her villainous sibling and charged her verdant energy into her hands and forearms, making a growing shield of her own energy. The black haired Tamaranean followed her sister's path with her eye beams, even as she threw more powerful bolts of energy at a slower pace, hoping to crush her sister's defense. When Starfire uncrossed her arms and launched the beach ball sized starbolt at her twisted sister only to follow up with a beam of emerald energy hidden in the corona of her own attack, Blackfire fired at the bolt of plasma with her eye beams. When the two attacks met dead center in between the two, the elder sibling couldn't have expected the attack to disperse into a cluster of starbolts headed straight for her, propelled faster than they could be thrown by the explosive force that the attack had been detonated with. She could only widen her eyes and attempt to weave in between as many of the starbolts as she could.

Too bad for her that she was so distracted by the cluster bomb of starbolts that she didn't even see the beam until it hit her.

Blackfire cried out in pain as she was knocked back in the air by the powerful beam attack, only to cry out louder when the remainder of the cluster bomb peppered her body. Her body was wreathed in smoke from the attack, hiding her from sight. Starfire streaked straight towards the slowly dispersing smoke cloud with a starbolt charged in each hand. When twin beams of violet energy pierced through the smoke and straight towards her, she countered with a beam of her own even as she kept barreling straight towards her sister. With a snarl escaping her throat, Starfire angled her own attack just barely down a few degrees, continuing her relentless advance. Blackfire gasped when she saw her own attack deflected harmlessly into the air, only to scream in agony as Starfire's energy blast hit her in the stomach.

When the attack ended, the elder Tamaranean tried to fill her lungs with air, only to see something that she had not seen in quite some time: a boot to the head. Blackfire grunted as the attack hit her only to feel a burning hot hammer blow hit her in her now exposed stomach. With a cry of pain, the elder Tamaranean was sent hurdling to the ground. Her eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when she was chased to the ground by her younger sister…and her energy beam that hit her already abused stomach, speeding her descent from mere hurdling to careening. The ground buckled from her speeding impact with it, kicking a cloud of dust into the air; it shattered as the pursuing Tamaranean slammed into her elder sister at well over two hundred miles an hour, sending out a shockwave from the impact that forced the cloud of dust to travel for over half a mile and well past the now wide-eyed observant of this sibling battle.

When the dust settled, the Titans and the Centauri Police could see Starfire carrying a battered and bruised Blackfire over her shoulder, pieces of the older girl's armor having been torn off of her by the battle's conclusion. The Titans were in wide-eyed, slack-jawed shock at the ferociousness with which the two had battled. The Centauri Police were just thankful that they hadn't pissed the girl off **that** badly. Starfire handed her unconscious sister over to the two heavily armored police officers with a sad smile on her face.

"I believe that it is now your job to be doing the arresting of her," the red-haired girl stated as a tear escaped her eye. That comment finally allowed all those present to get their minds back on track.

"Blackfire of Tamaran, you are under arrest," the claw armed police officer declared as he fired another tentacle off to bind the criminal from her shoulders to her ankles. He then turned to Dani, "And do you think that you could replace the parts that you ripped out? ! It's rather _hard_ to leave orbit when your ship can't _fly_."

"Whoops, sorry about that," the ghost girl replied as she floated off to the crashed ship.

"And what species are you," the helmsman questioned, "The sensors have been picking you up as a Tamaranean this entire time, but I know for a fact that species can't pass through solid matter like that!"

Dani turned to the officer that had just spoken to her. "What is it with people this week thinking that I'm a Tamaranean," she huffed, "First Blackfire, now you guys? I'm a halfa, half a human, half a ghost!" Before the officers could question her further, she sped off to the crashed vessel to replace what she and Star had torn out.

The officer that had restrained the unconscious girl recovered his wits first and turned to Starfire. "As closest relative in the sector, would you like to record a message for her to hear after she has been properly put away?"

Starfire blinked for a moment before smiling widely and nodding. "Yes, that would be wondrous." The Centauri helmsman handed her a red, flat device with gold trim in response to her words. "Thank you," the Tamaranean said politely before pressing a button on the device, causing a gold panel on the device to glow green. "Farewell sister," Starfire declared, "Even though you attacked and betrayed me…it was still nice seeing you again!" Starfire stopped recording her message and handed it back to the helmsman.

The less equipped of the two smirked under his helmet. "She is not going to be happy when she gets this," the officer snickered, "Almost makes me want to be around just to see the look on her face." At this point Dani quickly came back and looked to her friends wearily.

"Alright, I put everything back where I got it," the halfa declared, "If you'll excuse me, I've gotta make sure that Danny's alright." With a nod from Robin, the girl quickly took off, back into the heart of the city. Raven watched her leave with a thoughtful look on her face as the two officers loaded Blackfire into the containment unit and took off for their cruiser minutes later. The entire time, only one thought came to the dark titan's mind.

"_A ghost is the spirit of a once living being…who's to say what the ghosts that bonded to Danny and Dani once were?_"


	6. Light Heart, Dark Intentions

A/N: Hey there all you readers of fanfiction out there! Welcome to another installment of Elegy of a Fallen Hero. I'm glad that so many of you seemed to love that last chapter. I can honestly say that I have never gotten that many hits in a single day before, 498 in case you were wondering. I'm also glad that you liked how I tweaked the second episode of the show, especially that last fight between Starfire and Blackfire. I just thought that the fight from the episode was pretty lame and spiced it up, really! And for those of you that were left hanging by Raven's last line, well…let's just say that I'm not surprised that nobody caught the REALLY subtle hint there that somebody else might have an idea of what's going on with the halfas. Only reason I'm not surprised is because I'd prolly miss it too as a reader. I just hope that despite any length or content problems that I may have with the chapter, you still enjoy this kinda in-between/setup chapter. And for the record, I meant to have this written out months ago but other good fanfiction got in the way...bad excuse, I know, but it's the truth. Also, thank EndGame666 for messaging me and finally getting my creative ass in gear to finish this chapter that I started on in December. Anyway, please read and review. If you don't….let's just say that back-up sewer water is a lot less funny when it happens to you.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Living Room, Nighttime

* * *

The lights were out in the living room, save for the soft glow of a computer off to the side. This is not an unusual sight for anybody that's been in Titan's Tower; nor is the spiky-haired silhouette staring at the computer screen. What is unusually is the silhouette talking to himself, however.

"Dammit," the Boy Wonder cursed under his breath as he went back to the beginning of the tape he was watching…for the seventy-ninth time. "I keep looking over this tape, but I can't see how this is a frame up! No matter what way you look at it, Phantom is guilty of kidnapping!" Robin groaned in frustration as he set his notepad aside. "Why hasn't the Justice League come down on Danny if it's so obvious that he's guilty? What am I not seeing?"

"What are you not seeing Robin," asked an unexpected feminine voice from behind the Boy Wonder. To his credit, he didn't jump in surprise, but his eye did twitch; he'd dealt with far worse surprises under the tutelage of Batman to be caught that off guard. Robin turned around to face the origin of the voice, only to see a sleepy Starfire floating behind him wearing purple pajamas with white cloud print on them.

"I'm just not seeing how Danny is innocent Star," Robin sighed. He had to stop himself from smiling when she yawned cutely and rubbed her eyes. "I've looked over this tape more times than I care to count, and I'm just not seeing how Danny got framed." That seemed to wake his friend up a little bit, if the slightly more alert look in her eyes was any indication.

"Perhaps I could be of some assistance," Starfire offered.

The Boy Wonder shook his head in response. "Sorry Star, but I've got to do this on my own."

The Tamaranian looked down somewhat dejectedly before turning her hopeful gaze once more on the masked teen in front of her. "Then would it not be a good idea to get a full night's sleep? What is that Earth phrase: 'All labor and no recreation makes Jack a blunted adolescent.'" Robin was able to hide his cringing at the redhead mangling another turn of phrase while she yawned cutely. Then he quickly puzzled out what she had actually meant.

"Close enough Star," Robin smiled before glancing to the computer and quickly returning his gaze to Starfire, "This may be important, but maybe a good night's sleep will clear my head and let me see what I've been missing."

* * *

Unknown Location, Supposedly Jump City

* * *

A figure cast in shadow watched several monitors as images of two teens flashed across them, one moreso than the other. "So, it appears that Phantom has gone to ground. No matter, at the very least I can assume that he won't interfere with my plans." The shadowed figure stood up from his seat just a cup of tea was set out before him, allowing the monitors to illuminate him better and reveal a copper and black colored mask with only one eye. Slade let his head slip back into the shadows as he took off his mask to enjoy his cup of steaming tea. "Thank you, Wintergreen," the villain stated as he set down the empty cup and let his once again masked face be lit up by the numerous monitors.

"I think that a test would be a perfect idea. How about you...Robin."

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Afternoon

* * *

"Seriously Raven," Dani declared incredulously the dark titan sitting across from her in the common room. She was carefully trying to ignore Cyborg's snickering in the kitchen while he was cooking chili for tonight in favor of talking to the violet-haired girl before her.

"Yes," Raven replied, her eyebrow arched, as she took a sip of her herbal tea, "Why do you ask?"

"You realize just how awkward it is to ask a guy's _sister_ that, don't you," the halfa groaned in embarassment, palm reaching face in ways that few have done before.

"Of course," the dark titan answered, taking another sip of her tea, "However, since I don't have a way to ask him directly, you're the only one that I can turn to." Raven's lips quirked upwards slightly in contenment; herbal tea with a hint of jasmine is always a nice way to relax.

"But still, just asking me out of the blue if Danny's going to be at the Midnight Latte tonight," Dani sighed in exasperation as now her head banged against the table, not allowing her to see the other girl smirking at her reaction, "Why?"

As the ghost girl's head rose, Raven schooled her features behind another sip of tea before replying. "His poetry is surprisingly dark and he's interesting to talk to." Raven didn't see down her tea after this response. This was fortunate for her due to the halfa's head meeting the table more violently this time, causing her Mountain Dew to be knocked over and Cyborg to briefly chuckle at the younger girl's plight.

"If I tell you this, could you please just get our number from him or something," Dani groaned from her place on the table, hoping that this awkward conersation would just end. While she was happy that her friend seemed to be taking an interest in a guy, something that the other Titans had told her had never happened before, she just had to wonder why it had to be Danny!

"I suppose," Raven answered with an eyebrow raised. The violet haired sorceress knew that she shouldn't get close to anybody, given what would eventually happen, but it was hard to find somebody that she could enjoy talking too. If her lack of experience in these matters garners reactions like this though, who is she to not find some amusement in the situation.

The halfa sighed in relief, visibly relaxing. "Alright, he said that he's pretty close to finishing his newest poem, so he'll definitely be at the Midnight Latte within the next week. I'd probably bet on him being there Saturday since that's the day he prefers to do his poetry readings. Sheesh Rae, do Cy and I have to give you advice on dat-"

"AAAAAAAAHHH!" Dani was cut off by a very feminine shriek followed shortly by Cyborg doubling over in laughter. The two girls turned their attention to the cackling cybernetic teen, questioning looks on their faces, before turning to the opening doors to the ops room...only for Raven to groan and Dani to join Cyborg on the floor.

"CYYYYBORRRRG," Beast Boy bellowed. His skin and hair were now brown, apparently his whole body if the changeling coming into the room wearing only a towel some soap suds and weilding a shower brush dangerously were any indication. "What did you do!"

It took Cyborg a few minutes and many tries to get off the floor, seeing his handiwork again just brought out more gales of laughter from the titanium titan. He even had to divert some power from a few non-essential function to life support just to keep from dying of laughter. When he finally got up from the floor on shaky legs, light chuckles escaping his lips and the halfa still rolling with laughter, he was finally able to respond to the glowering shapeshifter. "I added some red dye to your shampoo and body wash. I thought you'd appreciate me looking out for ya dawg. Don't you know that brown is the new green BB?"

Dani stopped laughing to pant a follow-up comment before her laughter renewed itself. "Don't you...know Cyborg? Brown is...so last season!" At that, Cyborg joined the ghost girl on the floor, laughing his circuits off. Raven just groaned at the two laughing teens before levitating herself to a side entrance, pausing at the door to shoot a parting comment at the furious Beast Boy over her shoulder.

"Beast Boy, you might want to throw some pants on before Cyborg takes pictures to post online."

Raven lifted her hood to hide her satisfied smirk at the changeling's eep of embarrasment as he scurried out of the room.

* * *

Jump City, Fenton Apartment, Nighttime

* * *

"Say what," Danny deadpanned, looking at his clone with an incredulous look adorning his face.

"I'm serious," the younger halfa protested as head met palm in their living room. "Do you honestly think that I'd joke about something like this! It was awkward enough when she was asking me!" The elder halfa almost felt pity for his clone's plight...almost. It was kinda hard to feel pity when it was being overshadowed by a sense of dread. Happens when something that you've been trying to avoid ends up developing anyway.

"But you think that she's getting interested in me," Danny asked, hoping that she had just been reading signals wrong.

"Her exact words were that you're poetry is surprisingly dark and you're interesting to talk to," Dani supplied. The ghost boy's hopes soared; looks like she did read into things wrong after all. "But if she just wanted to talk to you, she already knows where we live. I mean, c'mon, it's like she's asking me so that she can 'accidentally' meet up with you and go on a date after hooking up!" Hopes denied.

Hard.

Two heads met table with an explosive groan on resignation. "Why is it that it always seems as though the universe is trying to screw with me," groaned the ghost boy, "All I want is a normal life...why can't I at least have that much?" Cue head banging against table repeatedly.

"Maybe it's karma trying to tell you what you need to be doing with you life," the ghost girl offered hesitantly. Her head reunited with the table at her faux brother's Raven Grade Death Glare. "Okay, bad joke...and here's a worse one: with an attitude like that, you two are perfect for each other."

The Teen Titans didn't answer the calls of meta-human warfare in the skies above Jump City that night. Specter had called in saying that it was sibling induced rage.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Late Afternoon

* * *

"What were you thinking," Robin exclaimed. Apparently not interfering with their squabble the night before didn't prevent him from investigating what caused the fight. Needless to say, he wasn't exactly amused with what caused a huge commotion with the citizens and police of the city. He was just thankful that there was no property damage, a few shattered windows from explosions aside.

"I'm trying to help him get past what happened in Amity," Dani shouted back in the Boy Wonder's face, "And I figured the best way to do would be trying to get him to want to be a hero again!" Starfire was watching from the sidelines with rapt attention in the ongoing argument.

"And how's pissing him off going to get him to want to be a hero again," Robin demanded, his face schooled but anger evident in his voice.

"How else am I supposed to get him to use his powers," the halfa ground out, fists clenched at her sides. Starfire gasped at this revelation while Robin's eyes widened slightly. "You know as well as I do just how against using his powers he is! If he keeps doing things that aren't strictly 'normal' he might eventually start doing it without getting so pissed!"

"Perhaps you could try conversing with the Phantom about this," the Tamaranian inquired, hoping to diffuse this fight between two of her friends.

"What do you think I tried to do first," Dani groaned in exasperation, "It took me almost seven months just to get him to agree to that training session a few weeks ago, and you both know how well that went!" The red-headed alien brought her hands up to her face, shocked that somebody would be that against using the abilities they had been granted. Robin, however, reviewed everything in his mind...

"I see your point, but you shouldn't push him so hard. Alright, Specter." ...and relented. He placed a hand on the ghost girl's shoulder comfortingly, causing her head to jerk up in surprise. "If you push somebody as stubborn as him too hard, it could come back to bite you in the ass, trust me on this one." Dani looked the Boy Wonder in the eyes and opened her mouth to speak-

BRRREEEEET

-only to get cut off by the alarms in the tower going off. Robin sighed as he put his game face on. He patted the halfa's shoulder once before going to the map of the city that had brought itself up to see where the problem was. His eyes widened in shock at what he saw just as Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg barged into the ops center.

"Dude, where's the trouble," the changeling asked, a serious look on his brown features.

"There's been a break-in in Experimental Weapons Division at S.T.A.R. Labs," Robin answered, a grim look on his face, "Titans, GO!" The Titans rushed out of the room to get to the emergency, save for Robin who hing back for a moment. "You coming Specter?"

Dani blinked at the unexpected inclusion. "You really want me to help you?"

"It can't hurt," the Boy Wonder shrugged, "And you are an honorary Titan in everyone's eyes." Dani grinned with happiness at the masked hero's words. Said masked hero internally winced before continuiung with another question. "Think you could fly me over there?"

Robin and Dani, despite being the last to leave the tower, were the first to arrive at the break-in...much to the chagrin of the Boy Wonder's stomach.

* * *

Jump City, S.T.A.R. Labs, Experimental Weapon Division, Late Afternoon

* * *

The Titans quickly congregated at the appropriate underground level. Most of the Titans had made use of Raven's teleportation spell to get down there without having to cause property damage. Robin and Dani, on the other hand, had just phase through the walls and ceiling until they were at the right place. God Bless intangibility. Robin had spent the time waiting for the other Titans to arrive inspecting the damage to the doors leading into the lab area, trying to get his angrily churning stomach under control. Cyborg had immediately set to the same task when he arrived.

"Looks they used a high-yield energy weapon to cut through the doors," Cyborg whistled, "Had to pack one hell of a punch to cut through those doors this cleanly."

"But the question is, who would use such a powerful weapon just to get an experimental weapon," Raven intoned, monotone firmly in place.

"I don't know, but whoever they are, they're going down," Robin stated firmly, his eyemask narrowing dangerously. He waved his, indicating that the others follow him down the spacious hallway. When they reached the first intersection, they galnced at all the paths and immediately sweatdropped when they saw a horde of robots standing in one of the paths, looking right at them with laser pistols drawn.

"Well, least we know which way they went," Beast Boy laughed sheepishly. Nobody paid attention to his comment as they all started to combat the horde of drones. The formerly emerald changeling shifted into a gorilla and lumbered his way into the fray, joining the masked teen that had already pulled out his bo-staff in the front lines of this robot beat-down, trying to dodge laser fire all the while.

"You tin cans are goin' down," the cybernetic titan proclaimed boisterously as his arm converted into its sonic cannon configuration. "Booyah," he yelled as a lance of azure condensed sound arced towards the drones that had started to circle around Beast Boy, trying to surround the shapeshifter. He wasn't surprised when his attack didn't punch through the robots attacking his teammate, but he was satisfied by the sheer concussive force knocking the automatons into each other and away from his little buddy.

Raven had her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, her eyes glowing white from the spell she was preparing. "Azerath Metrion ZINTHOS," she shouted as her eldritch power encased twenty of the robots that were trying to swarm the team's erstwhile leader. She smashed them together, compacting them into a ball roughly eight feet across and launching it down the expansive hallway to crush more of the machines with her assault.

Starfire and Dani had taken to the air above the robots, getting a bird's eye view of the wanton cybernetic destruction their friends were raining upon their enemies. They looked at each other and nodded, silently agreeing upon where they would strike. Starfire took to the right side of the hallway, the one that Robin was fighting on, and quickly started to rain starbolts on the machines before her. Her starbolts may not have had enough concussive force to push the drones more than a foot, but the sheer heat of the plasma-like energy projectiles were able to warp and slightly melt them. The robots quickly changed targets from Robin to Starfire, reassessing the threat evalutation appropriately with the jade balls of doom raining upon them.

Dani, on the other hand, had taken the left side of the hallway, prefering to let Starfire show where her interests lay. "Alright, time for some target practice," the halfa muttered to herself as she floated in midair above the battlefield the hall had become. She brought up her hands surrounded in viridian ectoplamsic energy and fired her ghost rays at the still numerous machines, aiming for their heads. She fired her attacks as fast as she could and was satisfied that she was hitting where she wanted to more than half the time, proving that her practice sessions in the gym at Titans Tower had been paying off.

The drones, on the other hand, decided to let her know just how bad an idea it is to stay in one place in a fight if you don't have a heavy defense or an overwhelming offence. She gasped in pain as the first few shots hit her before she fell from the air, not having the advantage of tougher skin to protect her from the shots. She was caught by a bubble of ebon force that took out of the battle for a moment, allowing Raven entrance into her own construct. "Are you alright," the dark titan inquired, concern lacing her voice.

"Yeah, just give me a sec and I'll be right back out there," the ghost girl winced as she looked at where the crimson beams of energy had hit. She took in a sharp breath seeing the energy burns that peppered her skin. "I'm just glad those things aren't set to kill."

"Yes, it seems like these robots are acting as a distraction to prevent us from getting to the real problem," Raven grimaced as her hands glowed with a blue light, "Here, let me at least ease the pain a little."

"Thanks Raven," Dani smiled as the violet haired sorceress went to work, "I just really don't want to use that white beam in such a small place; I don't want to end up hurting you guys with my power."

"It's good to see that you try to use your abilites appropriately," Raven replied, earning a smile from Dani as she finished her quick healing. The dark titan stood back up in her protective shield and looked out at the battle, not really surprised that it seemed to be drawing to a close. Between Beast Boy smashing the automatons together, Robin thrusting his bo staff through the joints to disable them, the combined ranged assault of Cyborg, Starfire, and Specter, along with her own devastation of a large amount of the mechanical menace it had only been a matter of time before they had come out victorious. "Let's help our friends finish this, shall we?"

"Yeah, it's time to blast some bots," the halfa grinned as the black construct collapsed, allowing her to join the others in finishing off the last of the machines. Raven just shook her head at the ghost girl's eagerness to prove herself. The battle didn't even last a full minute after that point.

"That battle was depressingly short-lived," the Tamaranian commented, "A mere two hundred mechanical humanoids against the six of us did not endure a prolonged battle."

"I agree," Raven assented, "It's as though these robots were cannon fodder meant to keep us away from what they were after."

"True," Robin agreed, "Titans, move out; we have to get to what they're after and stop them."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Beast Boy grinned as the six teen ran and flew down the now scrap part littered passage. They stopped in front of a room that had had it's door as cleanly severed as the entrance to this division, obviously the place that whoever was behind this was after. They quickly entered, keeping wary of any potential ambushes, and were left disappointed when they got to the center of the room which had been similarly disembowled. Only a single drone was in the room, a metal hand on its head, apparently just waiting for the six teens. Just as Robin was about to leap forward to destroy this last robot, it took of it's copper and black faceplate, revealing a vidscreen that quickly flickered to life. As the image resolved itself, they were able to make out a muscled man with a similar armor to what the automatons were wearing, but he had only a sinlge eyehole in his mask. The Boy Wonder stopped, deciding to see what the mastermind behind this whole plot was.

"Hello, Titans," the man stated, "I'm so glad to see that you made it this far, but you're too late. I already have what I'm after."

"Who are you, and what did you take," the masked teen demanded of the obvious villain, his muscles tensed in preparation to dodge any potential attacks.

"I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet Robin; after all, it was me who sent the HIVE to take your tower."

Robin's eyes narrowed at this revelation. "Slade."

"Ah, so you do remember that little test," Slade chuckled condescenindly, "And as for what I took...well, that would be telling, wouldn't it."

"You won't get away with this," the Boy Wonder growled, seething at the man that hadn't even bothered to show up to the heist himself.

"Yeah, we're gonna take you down hard dude," Beast Boy chipped in, trying to sound as intimidating as he could.

The masked villian just chuckled. "Not likely," he said in response to the russet changeling, "And I've already 'gotten away' with this, Robin." With a last condescending chuckle, the man reached off screen and the video feed froze...but not without a countdown flashing.

Robin's eyes widened, discerning what the countdown would most probably mean. "Titans, get back!" They didn't need to be told twice. They ran out of the room, Raven doing so after surrounding the drone with a sphere of her eldritch magic. When the robot exploded, she was able to contain the blast, but the effort knocked her unconscious. Dani and Starfire were the first ones to go to the dark titan's side.

"Is she alright," Robin asked, his eyemask furrowed in concern.

"Yes, it appears as though the mental strain induced by containing such an endothermic reaction surpassed her mental fortitude," the redhead declared. The other teens paused momentarily, trying to puzzle out what she had said in common English.

"Uh..." was Beast Boy's intelligent response.

"Oh, you mean that she was knocked out because holding that explosion back was too much for her," Specter asked, snapping her fingers in realization.

"Yes, that too," the Tamaranian replied.

"I'll go see what he stole," Robin growled out, "Cyborg, could you examine the robots and try to trace the parts back to Slade?"

"Sure thing Robin," the cybernetic teen nodded as he entered the hallway to gather a few of the more intact drones.

"Starfire, could you examine what was holding whatever they stole for any possible clues?" Said Tamaranian nodded and floated over to examine the containment device. "Beast Boy, Specter, could you make sure Raven's alright?" At the nods from the two younger teens, the Boy Wonder turned and left the room to inquire further about what was being held in the room, his cape flapping in an unfelt breeze.

When he had left the room, the shapeshifter turned to the halfa and asked, "How does he do that?"

A shrug was his only answer.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Nighttime

* * *

It hadn't taken very long for Robin and Starfire to correlate their information, but the team had decided to stay there for a bit longer to help with the clean-up. It was now a few hours later, and the Boy Wonder was still fuming. "A condensed photon generator? Man, the only things I could think of for stealing a weapon that powerful definitely aren't good," Cyborg groaned, "And to top it off Robbie is in the lab trying to find more about Slade! It'll be days before he decides to come out of there again!"

"Um, Cyborg," Dani inquired sitting on the couch along with Beast Boy, who was trying once again to beat her at Gran Turismo 5. Key word: trying. From his spot at a table working on taking apart one of the drones that he had salvaged, Cyborg grunted his confirmation that he was listening. "What is a condensed photon generator supposed to do? I'm not up on tech besides cell phones and apps."

"Yeah Cy, what's the big deal about this photon thingy," Beast Boy chimed in, trying to use the halfa's distraction to beat her in the race. Again, key word: trying.

"Alright, you want the techie explanation..." the ghost girl's flat look answered his question quickly, "Okay, the simple version it is. Take my arm for example, my sonic cannon is a small scale condensed sonic energy generator. If you take a condensed photon generator of the same size, you'll have something like a laser except about forty feet across and able to vaporize whatever it hits." Dani and Beast Boy looked at each other, morbid understanding dawning on their faces.

"Okay that's defintiely bad," the ghost girl grimaced, not wanting to think about what a villain could do with something that powerful.

"Dude, that's so not cool," Beast Boy groaned. A smile crossed his face as he finally got ahead of Dani...only to be dashed just as quickly when a twitch of her thumbstick and a press of a button had the shapeshifter spinning wildly out of control and knocked almost completely out of the race by the multiple impacts with the other players online. Victory: denied...thoroughly. Cyborg couldn't help but chuckle at Beast Boy's plight.

* * *

Jump City, Midnight Latte, Saturday, Early Evening

* * *

Raven was seated at a table in the back of the dimly lit cafe, sipping on another herbal tea, with a bit of peach added this time. She was wearing a dark violet hoodie and black denim jeans with the deep violet beanie again to hide the gem on her forehead and the midnight blue sneakers. After a brief talk with her other emotions in her mindscape, she'd decided to come here after all if for nothing else than to have a bit of time away from the other Titans. They may be my friends, the dark titan had reasoned, but sometimes I just need a break. At least that's the argument she'd used against the many other versions of herself that had been in her mindscape.

"I wonder if he will actually show up," Raven mused to herself, "He is one of the better poets I have heard here." And then the lights dimmed, signalling to all the patrons that another poet was about to get on stage. She glanced up, and allowed her gaze to stay while keeping her expression neutral. She knew who the poet was. After all, he's most of the reason she came to this cafe more often. The Midnight Cafe got quiet in deference to the poetry reading, moreso than they had for most of the other poets. A violet eyebrow raised at the halfa's apparently raising popularity.

"Everyone has secrets,

At first they let the mind rest.

They help in the here and now,

But later they drag you down.

Something everyone tends to do,

They are meant to protect you.

But that lie can harm,

No matter its charm.

In the shadows the truth will hide,

Just waiting for you to confide.

And the longer you keep,

The more you will weep.

Secrets are life's greatest treason,

No matter what the reason.

That little white lie,

Could cause someone to die.

Secrets allow someone,

To get something done.

But for every liar,

They will backfire.

Those lies on which you lean,

Meant to protect your being.

They affect family and friends,

Bringing things to bitter ends.

Secrets allow you to pretend,

You mind they will defend.

But on your soul there's a price,

And nothing will suffice.

Hold true to this fact,

Everything comes back.

With those errors of the past,

Your life will come crashing down fast."

Danny closed his eyes and let his hands rest at his sides. After a few moments, the quiet applause started and he walked off the stage as the lights returned to their usual dim luminescence. During his poetry reading, he had spotted a slightly familiar face in the crowd, much to his chagrin. Deciding to face his fate head on, he went over to where the violet haired girl was sitting in the crowd. "Mind if I sit here," the ghost boy asked her, already sure of the answer.

"Of course not Danny," the dark titan replied. She was mildly surprised that he had made a beeline over to her this time. "For somebody that's so adamant about living a normal life, you don't act very apprehensive about sitting near somebody who runs counter to that," she commented, a delicate eyebrow raised questioningly.

"I was fairly certain that you came here for me Rachel," at the flat look he recieved for that comment he decided to continue, "Danielle told me that you were wondering when I'd be here again."

Raven nodded slightly, accepting his explanation. "But that still doesn't explain why you didn't try to sit somewhere else this time; there are plenty of empty seats this time."

Danny raised his own eyebrow at the disguised hero, as though he were wondering why she hadn't realized the answer already. "Out of all of your friends, you and Robbie are the only two that could blend in with a crowd...you moreso than him."

"An...interesting choice of words, but given the circumstances I think even he could let your reasoning slide," the dark titan stated, mildly impressed that he had answered her interrogative without revealing anything to anybody that didn't already know so easily. "I guess that despite you just declaiming secrets as evil, you are very well versed in their use."

"With what I've done in the past, I had to be," the halfa explained, "Not going to question me on the significance of the poem this time?"

"Given what little I do know of your past, I don't really need to ask the question," Raven answered, taking a sip of her tea.

"So, any new questions you wanted to ask me this time around," Danny inquired, reaching a hand into his pocket for the debit card he'd gotten from Vlad. As he did this, he was wondering what he should get for himself to drink.

"Just because I came her to speak with you more, does that mean that I have to be trying to dredge up facts about your past," the dark titan countered, putting down her now empty cup.

"Well, when you phrase it that way..." the halfa motioned to the counter. Raven raised an eyebrow at his action. "Since you're here I might as well get you something as well since I'm thirsty."

"Such a gentleman," the disguised sorceress remarked as they made their way to the counter to get their drinks. Chamomile tea for her and fuju berry Jones him. "All I want to do is talk. You are more interesting to talk to than the others." Danny rose an eyebrow speculatively, but acquiesced to her desire. The two spent the next couple of hours, casually talking, neither one noticing or caring about them being more comfortable in the other's presence.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Raven's Room, Midnight

* * *

Raven was levitating above a circle of candles, the only lumination in the room, in the lotus position, focusing for the task she was about to perform. She was about to perform a seance, one of the most accurate forms of divination that she knew, but also one of the more dangerous if done improperly. Since the ordeal with Blackfire, the question as to the identity of the halfas' ghost halves had been burning in her mind. The dark titan had tried many forms of divination over the past week and a half, but to no avail. Which brought her to her current resort to finding the answers she desired...

Contacting the souls of the dead.

As she floated above the ground, intoning her incantation, the candles flared brighter. She had to maintain focus to do this properly, but recognized the candles' flaring as a sign that everything was going well. She finished her incantation and watched as the candles dimmed again to their usual luminescence while releasing more smoke. A very good sign that the sceance was done properly. The smoke then pooled together into a large amorphous blob. "Spirits, I seek your counsel. I wish to know more about the two halfas of Jump City, more specifically what their ghost halves were in life. I humbly ask you, spirits, for the answer to my question." At her imploring, the smoke coalesced, making a human looking shape out of the smoke. Raven couldn't be more pleased with the immediate results she was getting.

Then the smoke fell onto the ground, bringing Danielle Fenton into her bedroom dressed in her pyjamas.

Raven blinked for several second. "Spirits, you are dismissed," the violet haired girl sighed in exasperation. The lingering smoke in her room dissipating and the candles all going out the only indication that they had bade her command. To her chagrin, the ghost girl was still in her room, sleeping soundly. With a quick incantation and a wave of her hand, Dani was sent back from whence she came.

"Why do the spirits have to have such a demented source of humor," Raven groaned as she prepared to go to bed after her failed divination.

* * *

Unknown Location, Supposedly Jump City

* * *

"Alright, you certain you can track him down scuzz-muncher," Gizmo inquired the figure in the shadows before him. "I can pay you half now and half after the job is done, along with making any tech you may need in case we need your help to bags the pit-sniffer the hard way."

The person stepped out of the shadows, his eyes, flowing flame-like hair and goatee glowing an even brighter green than usual. The heavily muscled form of the person didn't intimidate the diminuitive genius since he could see that it was obviously entirely a suit of cybernetic armor. The figure grinned maliciously at the half-pint villian before replying. "Of course I can hunt down the whelp. I am not known as the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter for nothing!"


	7. Sounds of Conflict

A/N: Hey there guys, girls and freakish horrors from another dimension bent on world domination (tosses the mirror out the window)! I know this chapter's been a while coming, but I've been honestly distracted with other things, not the least of which being the fact that I finally caught back up with all of my regular reading material on this site. I've actually got a rather flawless system in my opinion for when I'm reading a good fanfic, in case you were wondering. It's a trend that I noticed after I'd hunted down several fanfics that looked decent, and don't know if anybody else has encountered this. I can generally tell how good a fanfic is by the number of updates I get in the mail for other fics on my alert list. Take Senjuu Naruto by Baal of Yarns for instance, I just started re-reading it when I got to the bulk of the action scene in this chapter, and I've already gotten four chapter update notices for other fanfics...and I've only reached chapter six of the story! Enough on that topic though. You can thank EndGame666 for giving me that final push to get the chapter out again, it really helps when people are actually asking for the next update rather than saying they can't wait for it. And thank you CrazyLittleQuack for adding this to the Changed Circumstances c2, it touched me that you think this is a decent AU. Really makes a writer feel wanted, ya know. But, I digress. Enough with my meaningless drabble, just read the chapter before I melt your minds for not doing what you came here to do! Oh, and review if you want to, just saying.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Ops Center/Living Room, Crack of Noon

* * *

"I just don't get it dawg," Cyborg sighed, sparks and a high-pitched squealing accompanying the cybernetic teens scratching his head, "How can you get so obsessed over a guy that already told us he'd let us take him down if he gets outta line?"

"Talk is cheap," the Boy Wonder grunted, eyes never leaving the Amity Park mayor kidnapping video that he was watching yet again.

"Look Robbie, if the guy was as bad as you think he is, then he woulda just forced Raven and Star outta the way after his throw down with his sis," Cyborg countered, trying hard to keep the exasperation out of his voice. "Instead, Danny asked them to get outta the way then flew right through Star like she wasn't even there. Hell, he coulda just blasted Rae to get free, but instead he answered her questions! I don't think he's a bad guy!" Key word: trying.

"The proof is right here in front of us," Robin snapped at his friend, "I've lost count of how many times I've watched this, and no matter how many times I watch it all the evidence points to Phantom being a villain!"

"I ran the full audio and spectral analysis myself, Robin," the titanium Titan growled angrily, "Everything came up negative! The mayor shouted for help without any indication that he was about to be kidnapped! Face it man, Danny's innocent."

"And I'm telling you, Phantom-" Robin was about to argue, before being interrupted.

"Dudes, are you two arguing about that _again_," Beast Boy groaned as he entered the living room.

"And he _still_ won't see that ghost boy's innocent," Cyborg declared, exasperation evident even in his cybernetic eye. He pointedly ignored the almost Raven level glare leveled his way by the masked teen. As Robin replayed the video, the emerald changeling watching with rapt attention. After the tape finished, he turned to the team's leader with an incredulous look on his face.

"And you _**can't**_ see how Danny's innocent," Beast Boy inquired, making both males slightly nervous because of just how well he mimicked the resident goth.

In her room, Raven suddenly felt as if the very laws of the universe had been twisted into an unrecognizable knot.

Robin turned around in his chair to level an angry look at the shapeshifter before gritting out, "What makes you say that?"

"Danny just dragged the mayor out of the building, the mayor calls out for help without any indication that he's in trouble, the mayor's the first one to start moving back, Danny's look of shock and surprise at what's happening, Danny's feet are digging into the ground as he's being dragged back, and this happened at the tail end of a ghost invasion," Beast Boy explained, ticking off each point on his fingers as he looked the Boy Wonder in the eye, "Oh, and let's not forget that the **Justice League** didn't come down on him _ever_! Face it dude, he got framed and I'm bettin' Batman knows it too."

Both Titans gawked at the emerald Titan's observations before watching the tape again. Their jaws promptly hit the floor.

Cyborg was the quicker of the two to recover. "How did you see that so fast dawg," Cyborg whistled approvingly.

"Robin's not the only one with crime-fighting experience here," Beast Boy boasted as he walked out of the room, hiding a shit-eating grin from one-upping Robin.

The cybernetic teen shook his head with a wry smile as he watched his friend walk out of the room. He turned to the still shell-shocked Robin and declared, "Looks like we can call Amity Park and get Danny off the most wanted list, right Robin?"

Nothing.

"Hello, Earth to Robin," Cyborg said, snapping his fingers in front of the Boy Wonder's face.

Nothing.

"I know that was surprising man, but don't you think you're overreacting?"

...Nothing.

The titanium Titan sighed, "I'll make the call."

Too bad the sirens chose right then to go off, forcefully bringing Robin out of his stupor; Cyborg really wished he had thought to take a picture.

* * *

Downtown Jump City, Funkytown Music Depot

* * *

"You dweebs call this music," a pale white rocker girl with flaming green hair scoffed as she brought her pink and blue guitar to bear, twisting a knob on its surface, "Let me show you a tune to remember!" With a single power chord, a cone of purple rings shot forth from the headstock, rendering many shelves reduced to scrap and many scattered civilians. With another twist of the knob and a power chord, she turned to the store front and demolished it with a single fist shaped blast of blue energy. "Yeah, Ember's back baby!"

"Stop right there," Robin yelled as he was dropped to the ground, bringing his extended bo staff to bear. Behind him, Starfire floated above the ground, starbolts glowing around her hands; Cyborg was dropped to the ground with a thunderous crash, his right hand reconfigured into a sonic cannon and glowing brightly; Beast Boy landed lightly on the ground in a crouch, having just shifted from his pterodactyl form; and Raven rose out a pool of inky blackness on the ground. Out of all the teens present, only Beast Boy and Raven recognized the guitar wielding girl before them, but for very different reasons.

"Ember McLain! Dude, you're music rocked a couple of years back," the emerald shapeshifter declared emphatically, "This is _awesome_!"

"At least somebody around here has good taste," the rocker ghost chuckled as she swung her guitar to point at the assembled Titans, turning a knob on the instrument again.

"Cyborg, call Specter," Raven commanded, preparing her eldrich energies for split second use, eyes never leaving Ember. "Phantom fought against her." The cybernetic teen's eye widened as he quickly brought up his communicator on his left arm.

"So you know the dipstick," Ember sneered, "What, did the baby change his name or something? Better yet, why don't you tell me where the twerp is so that I can use his empty skull as my new snare?"

"Like we're going to tell you where Phantom is Ember," Robin declared with narrowed eyes.

"What do you mean she fought Phantom," Beast Boy asked incredulously, "What's that supposed to mean Rae?"

"I believe what Raven is referring to is that all of the beings that the Phantom has done battle with are ectoplasmic manifestations of the spirits of people that died while experiencing strong emotions," Starfire explained...sort of.

"Less talk, more fight dweebs," the rocker ghost challenged as she let another cone of sonic energy to rip forth with another power chord, only for it to be blocked by an ebon shield that instantly sprouted in its way.

"Titans! GO!" Robin commanded, causing the teens to scatter to combat Ember, or at least hold her back while somebody better equipped to deal with ghosts was brought in.

* * *

Jump City South Central Middle School

* * *

"I swear, it feels like I'm in a Peanuts cartoon," Dani grumbled to herself. Here she was, slouching at her desk in class, wearing an open dark brown long sleeved shirt over a baby blue t-shirt with jeans and a pair of black Converse sneakers, trying to pay attention, but all she could hear was 'wahwah wah wah wah.' The halfa was wishing for something, anything to happen.

She did not have long to wait.

Just as the ghost girl felt as though she were about to fall asleep, she heard a quiet, yet distinctive chiming coming from her book bag. "That's odd," Dani thought to herself, "I know I turned off my phone; so what could...that...be? Oh shit, that can't be good." She quickly raised her hand, and prayed that what she saw on that one French cartoon about that virtual world would work in real life.

"Yes, Danielle, what is it," Mr. Lopez, her English teacher, finally getting out of his droning lecture at the apparent question a student had.

"I'm _really_ not feeling well," Dani declared, trying to look as though she was about to throw up, "Could I be excused to go to the Nurse's Office?"

"Very well," Mr. Lopez sighed, "Just remember to read chapter eleven in your assigned reading, there will be a test at the end of the week." He barely got a nod of recognition out of the rushing teen as she all but ran out of the classroom with her book bag in tow. "Guess she really isn't feeling well. Anyway class, turn to page wahwah wah wahwah waah."

Dani ran down the hall and into a bathroom, shutting herself in a stall as she dug her Titan's communicator out and flipped it open, revealing the concerned expression of Cyborg. "Yo, what the hell took you ghost girl, we kinda got a situation downtown and we could use your help!"

"Well excuse me for being in English class and having to lie out my ass to get somewhere that I could answer the call," the halfa huffed indignantly, "What's a big enough problem that you guys can't deal with it anyway?"

"Apparently one of your brother's old enemies came into town and started blowin' up the local music scene," the titanium Titan explained, looking up quickly and moving to the side, causing the screen to blur slightly at the movement as flashes of blue, green, black and purple became evident. After a few moments, Cyborg's face came up on screen again as he continued, "Most of what we're doin' ain't affecting her Spec, we could really use you or Phantom out here!"

A serious look now adorned the ghost girl's face. "Where you guys at? I'll be there ASAP." Cyborg almost smiled at his part-time teammate's game face.

"We're by Chester and Oberton," the cybernetic teen replied, "Let's show this has-been what the Teen Titan's are made of."

"Just as long as you don't go yelling the title's of football movies, we'll do just that," Dani responded with a smirk, closing the communicator before Cyborg could from a response. She stashed her book bag in the ceiling and retrieved her Fenton Thermos from it as she flew out the building using her intangibility and invisibility. She only re-entered the visible spectrum after letting the white rings wash over her, heralding her transformation into her super alias.

* * *

Jump City, Funkytown Music Depot

* * *

"Ghost girl's got game, I'll give her that much," Cyborg chuckled as he lowered his arm, refocusing on the battle before him. To put it simply, they were getting their asses handed to them. The only two members of the regular team that seemed to have any effect on the undead rocker were him and Starfire due to the nature of their energy attacks. He'd thought at first that Raven would be an asset as well, but throwing anything at Ember had about as much effect as Beast Boy trying to tackle her as a gorilla or Robin throwing birdarangs at her...

Intangibility makes it hard to harm ghosts with physical force; who knew?

Raven was also having trouble with the guitar wielding ghost because of that damn guitar of hers! It was enough that she could just phase through people like it was nothing, but she could also shatter the dark Titan's shields by playing especially powerful chords! How the hell were they supposed to beat her without any of the ghost hunting gear he hadn't _quite_ managed to make for the team using the blueprints and theories that Danny had handed Raven? !

"Hraaaah," Starfire yelled as she hurled starbolts as fast as she could at Ember. Cyborg took the opportunity to fire his sonic cannon at the rocker ghost as well. When she quickly turned the same dial she'd been twisting to get different effects and started playing a heavy riff right out of a heavy metal album the already edgy teens were wondering just what trick she would be pulling out of her hat next. When the energy attacks were deflected by light green waves of sonic energy extending all around her, even the redheaded Tamaranean's eternally optimistic attitude started to get crushed.

"Dude, this chick has more powers than Superman," Beast Boy, once again in his elfin form, shouted over the din, "How the hell are we supposed to beat her!"

"You aren't dipsticks," Ember declared, her voice somehow carrying over her own playing, "Now why don't you bring out Phantom, I've got a bone to pick with the dweeb."

When a white beam of energy slammed into the dome and detonated with enough force to shatter windows one hundred feet away, Robin didn't know whether to be relieved or groan at the paperwork he was going to have to fill out for this incident. "Hey School of Rock dropout," Dani shouted, drawing all the assembled onlookers gazes upwards including the now furious Ember McLain, "Why don't you try switching to something more your speed...like the oldies!"

Taking in Specter's glowing white eyes and still smoking hands and she floated above the growling rocker ghost, Robin decided to settle on groaning.

"Nobody talks like that to me twerp," Ember growled, "I'm gonna enjoy taking you down!" With that, she floated into the air and started strumming her guitar fast and hard, sending blasts of violet energy careening towards the halfa. With suddenly wide eyes no longer glowing white, Specter started frantically dodging the numerous attacks coming her way.

"Well, I've definitely got her attention now," Dani muttered to herself as she dodged another blast of ectoplasmic energy that got a little too close for comfort, "Now I've just gotta keep it for long enough for the others to do someth-"

"Starfire! Cyborg! Help her out! Raven! Prevent as much collateral as possible! Beast Boy! You're with me! Titans, GO!" Robin shouted out his orders, causing the halfa to facepalm in mid-dodge and for her to get hit solidly in the gut by the now smirking Ember.

"Dipstick's not that bright if he's shouting out his orders where his enemy can hear it," the rocker ghost sneered, absently shredding a tune which caused the bubble of energy to spring up around her again, forcing the Titan's attacks to be deflected into buildings to cause extra damage. "Makes it a **lot** easier to counter that way, so I'm not bitchin'."

"Shit, what am I gonna do," Dani thought as she charged up another pearlescent ectoplasmic blast and shot it at Ember, surprising the rocker when it detonated in her face and sent her flying through another skyscraper. She fingered the thermos on the small of her back and a light bulb went of in her head. "Starfire!" The halfa quickly flew over to the Tamaranean and put the Fenton Thermos in her hands. "I'll try to distract Ember, what I need you to do is to try and suck her into this. Just aim it at her and push the button on the side when you find an opening...oh, and take off the cap first."

"I do not understand," Starfire questioned, confusion evident on her face, "How does a high temperature liquid transportation unit suck in a ghost?"

"Its called a Fenton Thermos, Star," Dani explained after she sorted out what the redhead meant, "It was made by the Fentons to capture ghosts."

"You girls done gossiping," Ember drawled as she lined up her guitar with one of the lower levels of a nearby office building, "Because I've got a dipstick to draw out." With a strong strum of her guitar, Ember sent several purple blades of ectoplasmic energy careening towards the building with a malevolent grin on her face.

Everything seemed to slow down in the halfa's eyes, almost as though time had slowed down for her. She didn't know when she'd started, but she knew she was flying as fast as she could to get in the way of the rocker's attack. "I don't know if I'm going to make it," Dani thought desperately.

The halfa could feel the energy building up in her hands, and just let instinct take over as she got in the way of the attack. She spread her arms wide, letting the energy go as she did so, finding herself surprised as the world sped back up for her and a pale green sphere of ectoplasm sprang up around her just before Ember's attack could hit home. The look of shock on the rocker's face was priceless in her opinion as her attack was reflected almost straight up into the air. She continued to watch with satisfaction as the slack-jawed expression turned into one of shock and surprise as a blue column of light sprang forth, sucking Ember into the thermos in Starfire's hands. She didn't notice the debris falling from where it had been knocked off by the deflected attack until it pass right through her shield and hit her solidly in the head and into unconsciousness.

Raven had noticed the debris falling but hadn't been overly concerned. She hadn't thought much of it because of the shield that the halfa had put up to stop Ember's attack. That changed the instant that she saw the debris pass through the shield as though it didn't exist. "Specter," the dark Titan shouted, drawing the attention of her teammates. When she saw the white rings spring to life around the halfa, she immediately shouted her rushed incantation and surrounded Dani with her ebon energy, concealing her transformation into her secret identity from view. With a nod to Robin, she quickly flew off to Titan's Tower as quickly as she could, taking the halfa with her using her telekinetic construct.

Robin just sighed as Starfire flew down to him with a worried gaze and a thermos containing a now shrieking ghost.

* * *

Titan's Tower, Medical Bay, Mid-Afternoon

* * *

"**WHAT THE HELL? ! WHY WAS SHE THE ONE DOING ALMOST ALL THE WORK FIGHTING EMBER? ! WHAT HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN DOING WITH THE SCHEMATICS AND EQUIPMENT I SENT YOUR WAY? !**"

Raven sighed at the angry...no angry didn't quite cover it...thoroughly pissed off shouting that Robin and Cyborg were getting from one Danny Fenton. She couldn't say that she _exactly_ disagreed with his assessment, but it looked like she might have to step in before Danny attacked both of her friends. She got up and walked to the door, sighing in exasperation at what she heard next.

"_I already told you Danny_," Robin growled at the fuming halfa, "_We called her in at Raven's request! You were my first choice, but we can't even get a hold of you if we run across something that we can't handle! And the reason Dani was doing most of the work is because Ember was countering every single thing we threw at her, including using abilities you hadn't told us about!_"

"And I already told ya dawg, I haven't managed to reverse engineer your family's gear to be able to adjust it to the abilities of the Titans," Cyborg declared in a civil tone of voice. The dark Titan almost stopped in shock at that one. Cyborg was never civil when his mechanical expertise was called into question. Good thing Raven didn't _do_ shocked. "And I've only managed to make one thermos, but I just can't get it to work man. I just can't figure out how the hell your parents did it!"

The door to the medical bay opened before the violet haired sorceress just in time to see the halfa facepalm at Cyborg's admission. She also noted that her titanium teammate was standing between The Boy Wonder and the halfa with a hand on either boy's chest. She raised an eyebrow, honestly surprised that there wasn't an all-out brawl in the hallway already.

"Alright, the thermos not working is my bad," Danny admitted while still glaring at the masked teen before him, "First time I got it to work, I accidentally channeled a bit of my ectoplasm into the thermos. That's probably the only thing left to do, my bad. That doesn't excuse the birdbrain that shouted his orders for everybody, including Ember, to hear!"

"What, and you don't expect me to give my _team_ instructions to make a fight easier," Robin growled out, "Unlike you, I know what it's like to lead a team!" Raven didn't need to be an empath to tell that was a low blow. She also didn't need to have talked to Danny to be able to tell that was farther from the truth by the grimace on his face.

The dark Titan had _no_ idea how it was going over the _actual_ _detective's_ head.

The halfa sent a baleful glare Robin's way that made Raven take a step back out of trepidation, much less sending Cyborg running full-tilt down the hallway screaming like a little girl and being powerful enough to not only derail the Boy Wonder's temper but make him gulp nervously as well. The violet haired sorceress was _impressed_.

"You think I don't know how to lead a team," Danny stated in a calm voice, putting Robin even further on edge, "Do you want to know what happened to the people I fought ghosts with, my **friends**?" Both bird-themed heroes' eyes widened at that last word; they both knew what had happened to his friends, they didn't know that they'd been helping him fight ghosts too.

"I was getting attacked by ghosts from ten years in the future and we tracked down where they were coming from to Clockwork, the ghost master of time," Danny explained, earning a gasp from Raven, finally alerting the masked teen to her presence, "I fought him, and was getting beat by him until Tucker figured out how to use his own gadgets to our advantage. He fled and we ended up getting sucked into a time portal to where the ghosts I'd been fighting for the last couple of days had come from. That was when we ran into the future version of myself."

By this point, Raven and Robin were paying rapt attention. They'd figured out early that getting a lot of detail out of him about his previous battles was like pulling teeth. If he was telling them the event that made him give up on being a hero, they weren't going to stop him.

"He called himself Dan Phantom, and he was created by a mixture of the explosion at the Nasty Burger killing everybody he held dear to him and moving in with his arch-nemesis," the elder halfa explained with a cold look on his face. The masked hero's eyes widened as pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit together very quickly in his mind. The picture wasn't pretty. "In his grief he asked his arch-nemesis to take the ghost half out of him, since that was the cause of all his problems. He agreed, and after doing that Dan's ghost half took the tool that had been used to separate him and used it to separate the ghost half from his nemesis. He then tried to overshadow his nemesis's ghost half and got corrupted, killing his original human half and almost doing the same to his nemesis."

Raven was mortified by what she was hearing. Her very existence was hell, and what would have happened to Danny if the flow of time hadn't been altered by Clockwork was enough to register on her radar. And she knew his tale wasn't over yet.

"Over the course of ten years, Dan went on a killing spree in both the real world and the Ghost Zone. By the time he was done, there was little left of humanity, the Justice League was no more, and what was left of his enemies were either too broken to be a threat anymore or had come together to make a stronger opponent. It was during this time that he had developed the Ghostly Wail. It was that hell on Earth that my friends and I found ourselves in. Dan attacked Amity Park, one of the last vestiges of civilization left, and started to kill everybody. I tried to stop him, but he overpowered me and almost killed my friends on the spot. If they hadn't taken off the medallions that allowed them to stay in that future, they would have died."

Both Titans were shocked by Danny's admission. His future self had destroyed the **Justice League**! That put Apokalips to shame easily, and that was what Danny was originally meant to be? !

"Dan beat me and forced a time medallion into me where I couldn't get rid of it, then took one for himself forcing himself to look like me. He threw me into the Ghost Zone to die while he went to the present to 'secure his future.' I ended up fighting the older versions of all of my enemies and would have died if I hadn't of discovered the Ghostly Wail on accident. I then hunted down my arch-nemesis and got him to take the medallion out of me, forcing me back to the present. The rest was on national television, including the deaths of everyone I held dear to me in an explosion."

Robin gulped hard. He had watched that video, and he hadn't believed that was an older, stronger version of the teen in front of him at the time. But...everything made sense now. Danny had worse luck than anybody else he knew, and that included part of the Justice League's roster. If the halfa in front of him had decided to give up on using his powers...that was probably the best outcome he could have hoped for.

Raven, on the other hand, had a good idea of what it felt like to be in Danny's shoes from her place sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall. Or at least she knew she would briefly before it would all be over in the hopefully distant future. It was times like this that she absolutely **hated** being an empath. Perhaps she would tell the elder halfa her own personal tale later, since he'd shared his.

"Now you tell me _**Robin**_," the ghost boy hissed vehemently, causing the Boy Wonder to flinch unconsciously, "Do I or don't I know all the dangers that come with leading a team?"

"I'm sorry, Danny. I di-" Robin tried to apologize.

"Finish that sentence and they'll be cleaning your blood from here to Gotham," Danny snarled, causing both bird-themed heroes to take another step back. The halfa didn't let up the pressure as he started advancing towards the Boy Wonder, causing him to back up very quickly. "You didn't even bother _**trying **_to learn what made me who I am today. You _**ASSUMED**_ that you had me pegged, and now that evidence that you _**NEVER BOTHER TO LOOK FOR**_ has decked you, you are trying to _**APOLOGIZE**_ for your actions! If you _**EVER**_ try to say something that you don't mean on me it will take _**MOTHER FUCKIN' SUPERMAN**_ to save your ass. _Are. __**We. CLEAR!**_" Robin nodded quietly, not trusting himself to speak.

With one more withering glare at the masked hero, the halfa turned towards Raven with a far more neutral expression that quickly turned to concern when he saw her slumped against the wall and sitting on the floor, apparently holding her head in pain. "Are you alright Raven," Danny inquired.

"I will be," Raven groaned as she started rubbing her temples, "I really hate being an empath sometimes."

"Crap." Danny officially felt like a heel now. He'd pretty much just unloaded everything that had been festering inside him for the last eight and a half to nine months on the Boy Blunder, and it had been the member of the main team he got along with the best that got off the worst because of his emotional breakdown. "Listen Raven, I didn't mean to-"

"I know," the violet-haired sorceress cut him off, "And if what I experienced is any indication, you needed that like Beast Boy needs a brain." The dark Titan let a wry smirk adorn her face at the slight chuckling the now officially emotionally spent teen let loose. "In case you were wondering though, Dani's doing fine. She just had a moderate concussion from the hit she took to the head."

"Well, at least that's some good news," Danny breathed in relief, "Now just to figure out what is up with her ghost shield."

"I think I may have an idea about that," Robin offered quietly, stepping up behind the halfa that had just finished chewing him out uncertainly. Raven honestly had to wonder if the team leader had a death wish. Danny just turned to him, giving the Boy Wonder a neutral gaze, before nodding his head for the masked hero to continue. "From what Dani's said about you, you have a ghost shield as well. Would you be willing to tell me what yours is capable of so I can tell if I'm at least in the right ballpark?"

The elder halfa only thought about it for a moment before nodding. "My ghost shield stops any attack that comes at me without too much problem. Although, a strong enough attack can still punch right through it."

"Well, from what I saw, your sister's shield didn't just stop Ember's attack, it reflected it. But the debris caused by the reflected attack just went right through it like a knife through butter," Robin stated, a little more sure of himself now that it looked like Danny wasn't about to kill him. The ghost boy got a thoughtful look on his face before nodding for Robin to continue. "If I'm right, and I'd prefer to run tests on it in a controlled environment where she won't get hurt, then her shield is perfect against energy, but anything solid will go through it like a ghost through a wall."

"That...actually sounds like a pretty good idea of what's going on," Danny agreed, "And I suppose you have somewhere here in the tower that you could train her?" At the Boy Wonder's nod, the halfa smiled. "Good. Maybe you guys could train her. If she's going to be a part of this team, she needs to know _exactly_ how best to work with all of you."

"Agreed," Raven nodded, raising her eyebrow at the ghost teen, "I'm surprised you're giving your blessing for her to be a part of the Teen Titan's though. I thought you were against the idea of heroes."

Danny shook his head. "It's not that I'm against the idea of heroes; I just don't want to be one any more. I can see where you got the idea from though."

"Alright, why don't you go see Dani. I'm pretty sure she's going to have a few questions when she wakes up," Robin declared.

"Not going to try to keep tabs on me this time Robin," the halfa inquired.

"Yeah...about that..."

Danny's laughter at how his innocence was discovered was loud enough to be heard in the workshop, where Cyborg was currently trying to erase the memory of a death glare that scared him worse than anything Raven had done yet. It was also loud enough to completely cover the light giggling that escaped the violet-haired sorceress's lips. Not that she'd ever admit to having giggled under torture of giving Beast Boy a tongue bath.

She didn't _do_ giggles.

* * *

Titan's Tower, Starfire's Room, Late Evening

* * *

"I still don't know how you talked me into this," Raven grumbled as Starfire braided her hair.

"You wished to do the conversing of acquaintance Danny with me and I suggested that we perform the hair-braiding maneuvers while we converse," the Tamaranean responded, eliciting a piteous groan from the dark Titan. "What is it that causes you internal distress about the Phantom?"

Raven chose her words very carefully before answering her red-headed teammate. "I wanted to know what you thought about Danny. I may have gotten to know him fairly well over the past month and a half, but it might be helpful to get an outside perspective on things."

The Tamaranean got a coy grin on her face at the violet haired sorceress's words. "Are you perhaps doing the crushing on Danny," Starfire inquired in as innocent a voice as she could muster. She had to try very hard to restrain her giggles at her friend's indignant spluttering.

"No," Raven finally managed to choke out, sending the best glare she could at the red-head while her hair was being braided, "I don't _do_ crushes. I'm just wondering what you think when you see Danny."

Starfire stopped braiding the violet haired sorceress's tresses to put a finger on her chin thoughtfully. "When I see the Phantom, he seems to me like a warrior whose spirit has been broken by seeing too many of the costs of battle," the Tamaranean mused, "What has happened to him has happened to many on my planet. That point that either creates or destroys a great warrior will either make them stronger and more determined or shatter their will to keep fighting."

"I would say that is an accurate description, and surprisingly deep," the dark Titan responded as the red-head returned to braiding her hair. It was very easy to remember just how strong the halfa's melancholy and depressive emotions are, especially since they have literally floored her. "And, as much as I hate to say it, I have to agree with Beast Boy: the way he acts is very unusual."

Starfire had to chuckle at the shiver that ran up her more goth-inclined friend. "Yes, it does hit myself as abnormal from what I have learned of you're planet's social mores," the red-head commented, "From what I've observed, when a human has a special talent, whether it be real or perceived, they do everything they can to ensure that every individual around them knows of it. The Phantom on the other hand, does everything he is capable of to conceal his unusual abilities."

Raven nodded after sorting out everything the Tamaranean had stated. "Yes, that does about sum things up. I've tried to find out more about him," Raven paused at the stifled giggles to turn another glare the Tamaranean's way, "Not like that, and you know it. Anyway, I've tried to find out more about him through divinations, especially since the questions that incident with your sister brought up, but none of them have revealed anything more than what he has told us and what Amity Park has released about him. It is very frustrating." Raven finished her small tirade with a very pointed and frustrated groan of displeasure.

"While I do not believe that is the only reason for you divinations," Starfire smirked, earning another heated glare as she finished braiding her friend's hair, "I am forced to inquire if it is unusual for such attempts to attain more information about an individual are unusual."

Raven grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'over presumptuous aliens' before answering the Tamaranean's question. "Yes, actually, a divination ritual can usually tell you a great deal about a person," Raven explained, "The lack of a result either means that the subject is either at a critical point in their life that can change their entire being or that a higher power has a vested interest in the individual. Given what he has told us...either option is equally possible at the point." Raven let loose another groan at the conundrum that was Danny Fenton, wishing she had answers but unable to obtain any.

"You know, this conversation has reminded me of an old Tamaranean war tale that my knorfka use to regale me with when I was young," Starfire mused aloud with a finger to her chin, "Perhaps I could inform you of the parts that are most analgous to the current situation while you perform the hair-braiding maneuvers on me?"

Raven groaned as she settled in behind the red-head, preparing to spend the next few hours listening to a 'brief' version of a Tamaranean tale while braiding her friend's hair.

* * *

Jump City, Unknown Rooftop, Early Morning

* * *

Gizmo had been watching Titan's Tower since that Fenturd guy had been brought in. He already knew there was some connection between him and that Specter chick, but he hadn't been able to figure it out yet. The Headmaster was breathing down his neck for a status report on the mission he'd been given. It wasn't his fault that scuz-licker Phantom was so damn good at hiding!

He zoomed in further with his binoculars as he saw two figures on the roof, one of them Fenturd and the other one Specter. His eyes nearly bugged out of his skull when white rings floated over the elder teen, transforming him into Phantom. When the guy started flying towards the south end of the city, the tiny terror dropped his binoculars in his shock.

"No way! Danny Fenturd is Danny Phanturd!"


	8. And Thus the Prologue Ends

A/N: Hey y'all! If you are wondering why it has taken me a while to write this chapter even though I started work on it almost right after I posted last..unless you're to busy reading to care, meh. Well, the answer for this is simple, I managed to find myself thoroughly distracted by the things going on around me. There were some Gamecube games that I absolutely loved and I finally found an emulator that would play them. Well...that ended up devouring a lot of my free time because I'd end up zoning out for hours on end playing a few of these games. Hell, I haven't even gotten a hold of and played all the games on my favs list yet! Anyway, this chapter was going to be a two-parter for pacing's sake, but couldn't get it to work out right. So, I pretty much just tweaked the original manuscript I'd written two years ago while the internet was down. Oh well, let's see what all of you will do to my lazy muse this time! Please read and review.

* * *

Titan's Tower, Living Room

* * *

"Dude, I'm so tired," Beast Boy declared as he flopped bonelessly onto the couch, "I don't think I can even pick up the remote!"

"You can think," Raven quipped over her evening cup of tea.

"Hahah, good one Rae," the emerald changeling laughed, "Wait, I so think!"

"Please Beast Boy, why is it that you are feeling the exhaustion," Starfire inquired from the kitchen, concern lacing her voice.

"You know how Robin has been watching that Inviso-Bill tape for the last month," Beast Boy responded, getting nods from his fellow Titans, "Well, he hadn't seen why the guy was innocent yet. I looked at the tape once and told him exactly how Danny was framed. After the shock of me showing him up wore off, he had me washing windows without me changing into any animals! Can you believe that! ?"

"I was wondering why it was so quiet," Raven mused thoughtfully, a wry smile on her face.

"**Dude**," Beast Boy shouted indignantly.

"Please, could you tell me what this 'showing up' is," Starfire asked, confusion written on her face.

"Pretty much, I showed him that he's not the best at what he does," Beast Boy explained, "I hit his ego pretty hard!"

"That's not hard to do when your ego is bigger that the cost of your hair gel," Raven offered, getting a round of laughter out of her friends.

"What's all the laughter about guys," Cyborg called out as he entered the living area.

"Beast Boy was just telling us of his showing up of Robin and besting his ego in mortal combat," Starfire explained, getting a confused look from the metal teen while he processed what the Tamaranean had just said. He laughed when he figured it out.

"You think that's funny," Cyborg managed to get out between laughs, "You should have seen the look on hsi face; he was in shock until the alarms went of because of Ember! I ended up making the call to Amity and clearing Danny's name."

"What did the mayor have to say," Raven inquired, keeping her tone carefully neutral.

"He already knew," Cyborg shrugged, earning a look of surprise from even the normally unflappable violet haired sorceress. "And check this, the new mayor is Vlad Masters."

"Dude, seriously! Didn't he try to buy the Packers three times," Beast Boy shouted incredulously, his exhaustion finally confronted as he hopped onto the back of the couch, "Why did he decide to be the mayor of the ghost capital of the U.S.?"

"Don't know, but I'm pretty sure he has a connection with Danny, BB," Cyborg replied with another shrug. Raven's eyes narrowed as she knew _exactly_ how the billionaire was connected to the halfa. "He's even sending the rarer materials and some of the specs from Axion Labs in case of a ghost invasion."

"He and Danny both appear very assured that such an event will come to pass," Starfire mused, an elegant finger tapping her chin thoughtfully. She then let out an eep as she pulled out a rolling pin and started beating the substance that was trying to crawl its way out of the pot on the oven, yelling in Tamaranean the whole time. Needless to say, the Titans' appetite were very quickly ruined at the sight.

"Given his past, I wouldn't push it aside as simple paranoia," Raven stated.

"Won't hear me argue Rae," Cyborg grinned, "He also said that we might want to try and get some help from Danny eventually."

"Why dude? With your tech skills and our butt-kicking skills, we shouldn't need to ask Danny to come out of retirement to help us," Beast Boy commented.

"Perhaps it is because he is the most experienced when it comes to the kicking of the ectoplasmic anomaly posterior," the red-haired girl commented, throwing a potent glare at the food as it tried to crawl back out again. It very carefully slid back into the pot, pulling the lid over itself.

"Then why not ask Specter for more help," the shapeshifter protested, "She's an active hero and is already helping us out when she can!"

"Because she's inexperienced," Raven sighed, "The fight with the HIVE was the first time she's showed up; and Danny would give us trouble in a battle, if his mock battle with Specter is any indication."

"Yeah BB, I hate to say it, but Raven's got a point," Cyborg stated, earning a half-hearted glare from said Titan, "Specter may be able to fight close to our level, but Danny wiped the floor with her. I think some members of the League would have problems with him.

"Perhaps if we asked Danny if he would like to assist us with our preparations for an assault by ghosts he would be willing to provide us with assistance as long as we do not ask him to directly involve himself," Starfire inquired, finally putting down the rolling pin as she gave the pot a final glare.

"Ya know, that doesn't sound like a bad idea," the cybernetic teen grinned, "I'll go run that by Robin real quick and see what he thinks." Raven just mentally groaned, already haveing a very good idea how this would end. Setting deed to word, the metallic teen left the room in search of the Boy Wonder.

The 'food' had absolutely nothing to do with his fast exit, really.

* * *

Jump City, Fenton Apartment, Early Evening

* * *

"I'm coming," Danny grumbled as he went to answer the door. His eyebrow raised when he saw Robin standing before his now open door. "Considering who you are, I expected you to come through the window two weeks ago."

"I save that for busting the real whack jobs," Robin joked, "Mind if I come in? I have a few things I'd like to talk with you about."

"Sure why not," Danny sighed, "I was actually about to head out to the Midnight Latte for the night, but I've got some time." He led the Boy Wonder over to a couch in the living room. "So why the sudden visit? I'm pretty sure I made my opinions about wanting to live a normal life very clear in one of our earlier 'talks'."

Robin gulped nervously, remembering that 'talk' very clearly."We talk with Vlad the other day, clearing your innocence once and for all," Robin stated.

"Still doesn't answer my question," Danny pointed out with a flat look on his face.

"He agrees with you that your appearance will probably bring the ghosts of your past to Jump City," Robin continued.

"Did you have to phrase it like that," Danny winced, "I hate that phrase."

"Hmm, sorry about that," Robin apologised, "But we need to be prepared in case there's a ghost attack, and your name came up."

"I'm not going to be a hero Robin," the halfa deadpanned.

"And I'm not asking you to," the Boy Wonder countered, making Danny pause in confusion. "What I'm asking is if you'd be willing to offer your extensive experience in dealing with ghosts as a consultant."

"That's just a step away from going out there and actually fighting them," Danny scowled.

"I know, but you are one of the most experienced people in the world when it comes to dealing with ghosts," the caped hero pointed out.

"And I also have given up on trying to do anything with my abilities," the ghost teen countered the masked Titan.

"You could do a lot of good by helping us out," Robin stated, trying to see if he could bring the heroic instincts out of the halfa.

"Trying to do the right thing ended up with me being an orphan." He failed.

"Could you at least hear me out," Robin sighed, getting frustated by the halfa's stubbornness, "While the info you've been giving Raven would help out a lot, what we really need is someone with field experience to help us out. I'm pretty sure Cyborg could set up a room with hard-light holograms to help with training."

"How many times do I have to tell you Robin, I just want to live a normal life," Danny groaned, "And that is definitely _not_ normal."

"Danny," Robin sighed, "I know that you want to live a normal life, but we could really use the help. We're willing to pay you a commission for helping us out, access to our training facilities in case you ever want to keep up with your powers included."

Danny sighed, nodding to the Boy Wonder's explanation. "I see where you're coming from, but there's not much I can do besides give you my ghost files. I've already told Raven everything that I could think of."

"Just that much could help greatly," Robin nodded, getting up from his seat on the couch. He followed Danny with his eyes as the ghost teen went into his room, his eyes widening in surprise at the sheer amount of weaponry lining the walls. When he saw the logo on everything he relaxed, up until he sweatdropped at the sight of the 'Fenton Anti-Creep Stick'. That just looked like a baseball bat with Fenton on it for crying out loud!

The halfa walked out his room a few minutes later with a flash drive in his hand. "Here you go Robin, a copy of my ghost files; every ghost I've ever encountered and what they can do is in there," Danny declared as he handed the masked hero the storage device.

"Thanks," Robin smiled as he took the flash drive from the teen's palm, "And if you ever change your mind..."

"I know where to call," Danny stated.

"I appreciate the help," Robin declared as he headed out the door.

"And that's the most you're getting out of me unless some sort of ecto-exodus happens," Danny grumbled once he was sure Robin was out of earshot. With a quick look out the window, his eyes widened. "Just my luck, looks like it's going to rain. Might as well grab an umbrella before I head out."

* * *

Jump City, Downtown, Three Hours Later

* * *

"I'm in position," Jinx declared over her communicator.

"Same here," Mammoth grunted, "Sure we about this one Gizmo? The Titans're already out 'cuz of the twerps that trashed the bridge."

"Yeah I'm sure fleabag," Gizmo huffed angrily. "The Headmaster hasn't made it a secret that he's interested in Inviso-Bill, or whatever the scuzz muncher calls himself. We get him, our records are clean with him. Besides, with those losers distracted by those two kludge-heads, now's the perfect time."

"I think Mammoth's talking about the loser we're paying to help with this mission," Jinx commented nervously.

"Are you questioning my abilities, whelp," a bass voice questioned over the comm line.

"No, Skulker," Mammoth responded, "We're just sayin' that your track record with this guy is bad at best."

"Don't worry about that whelp," Skulker scoffed, "With the upgrades to my suit your small friend has paid me with, the capture of the ghost child is guaranteed." The Ghost Zone's greatest hunter grinned at the thought of his quarry broken and beaten before him on the ground.

"Just remember, we need the target alive Skulker," Gizmo declared.

"I understand whelp, just have the second half of my payment ready after this hunt is over," Skulker sneered in response, "And realize, 'alive' covers a lot of conditions."

The three villains grinned maliciously at those last words.

* * *

Jump City, Suburbs

* * *

"Why do the bad guys always have to attack on school nights," Specter groaned as she fired an ecto-blast at the at least twenty foot tall fire monster that had showed up in the middle of a forest just outside of the city. Robin had gone off to fight an old man that apparently had tricked the two elementally charged teens they had fought on the bridge earlier that night to create this monstrosity. That left the rest of the Titans to fight the three elementals. "And why do they always feel like they have to bring big friends! I swear, they _have_ to be making up for something!"

"Don't you know, that's the number one cause of villainy," Cyborg joked as he fired his sonic cannon at the ground, trying to put out the monster made entirely of fire.

"Then why isn't Beast Boy a villain yet," Specter quipped as she countered another of Thunder's sonic blasts with a glowing white blast of her own.

"Dude, so not cool," Beast Boy shouted indignantly before turning into a rabbit to dodge Lightning's electrical attack.

"At least this one's a hottie," Specter smirked, throwing up a ghost shield to deflect yet another sonic blast, almost hitting Fire.

Raven groaned as she uprooted trees with her ebon energy to get them out of Fire's path. "You need to stop hanging around Beast Boy; that 'joke' was almost as bad as his."

"**DUDE**," Beast Boy yelled in frustration.

* * *

Jump City, Downtown, Midnight Latte

* * *

Danny was drinking an All Natural Soy Latte, listening to his favorite poet's latest diatribe in the Midnight Latte. His mind was wandering to the files on his rogue's gallery that he had made for the Titans just a few weeks ago at Raven's request. It had felt good to do something that could make a difference if his enemies ever showed up in Jump, despite most of the teen heroes saying that it was likely. He had felt vindicated when Ember had shown up looking for him. A grimace crossed his face before he took a sip of his coffee. When he put the cup down, a thoughtful look crossed his face. "I wonder if Rachel will come tonight," the halfa mused aloud, remembering to use the name she gave him for non-superhero related business. That was when something happened that he'd been dreading for nine months now.

His ghost sense went off.

"Oh no," was Danny's only response as his eyes widened after seeing the azure wisp of breath leave his lips for the first time in months. "_Of course, the _one_ time I don't bring my ghost hunting gears with me_," the halfa thought to himself as he turned around.

"Oh yes, ghost child," Skulker replied as he appeared floating in the middle of the roof with a cocky smirk, sending even the most desensitized onlookers in the café into a full-blown panic. "The hunt is finally over. Today, your pelt shall be mine!"

"That just gets creepier every time you say it, Danny quipped, realizing that he'd have to fight his most bitter foe. With a whispered battle cry that hadn't been uttered since Amity Park, the white rings formed at Danny's feet, travelling up the length of his body, transforming him into Danny Phantom.

Skulker immediately recognized something was off, however. The rings seemed to have been stained with a slight emerald hue and his glowing green eyes also appeared to have gained not only a slight greenish tint to the sclera, but a world weariness he'd only seen in the most battle hardened of warriors. He decided not to comment on this; now was the time for battle, not talking about changes in appearance. "Prepare yourself whelp, for today is your last!"

Danny yawned at Skulker's taunt and fired an ecto-ray at the hunter. Skulker grinned as he pressed a button on the palm of his left hand, making a circular plane of crimson energy appear that he used to reflect the incoming projectile back at the surprised halfa. "You'll have to do better than that, whelp," Skulker sneered with a smug grin on his face.

Danny ignored the new burn mark on his arm in favor of gulping. Apparently his for had upgraded while he'd been trying his damnedest not to use his powers, and he wasn't sure that he could win this fight as easily as he'd previously hoped.

* * *

Jump City, Suburbs

* * *

"We gotta take it out," Cyborg shouted as the two armored metahumans they had already been fighting turned on each other, leaving only the giant fire elemental to focus on. "Those houses go, the whole city goes!"

The surrounding area had been turned into a blighted landscape in between Raven tearing the trees out of the ground, the monster burning everything in its path, and the various energy attacks being thrown around. Starfire took a quick glance at these surrounding before turning a glare on Fire. "Yes, let us defeat this exothermic creation before anymore destruction can be caused upon this forest and our city," Starfire agreed emphatically, eyes and hands glowing with emerald energy.

"Easy enough for you to say," Beast Boy grimaced as the monster came closer, "At least you guys can actually attack the thing!"

"Not our fault you couldn't turn into Godzilla, grass stain," Cyborg yelled as he fired another blast of condensed sound at Fire.

"Wait, he actually tried that," Specter questioned, stopping in mid-air, only to hastily erect a ghost shield to protect her from a stream of fire as Starfire pelted the elemental with star bolts.

"Would you please concentrate on the monster trying to burn down the city instead of random things that are happening around you," Raven inquired/demanded as she drew on her power, making her eyes glow white.

"Spoil sport," Specter pouted as her hands and eyes started glowing white. "One blown up furnace, coming up!" With that, the halfa fired a blast of pearlescent energy from both her hands, putting as much power in her attack as she could. As the ectoplasmic energy struck fire, detonating on impact, Raven finished her incantation, encasing the monster with her ebon energy and trapping the white explosion, forcing it to wash over the monster again and again.

The effort nearly made her lose consciousness despite being prepared for a powerful explosion this time.

Raven let her telekinetic construct fade, revealing a large monster made of ash and not moving. "Yeah, we did it," Beast Boy shouted triumphantly, jumping in the air for joy and causing the other Titans to let out breaths of relief after the monster hadn't made a move for half a minute.

The emerald shapeshifter was proven wrong by the Murphy's Law when, with a mighty roar, the monster reignited itself brighter than before with dark black pits in the center of its eyes, sparkling with pure fury.

"Uh, I think we need a new plan," Cyborg muttered at the spectacle before him

* * *

Jump City, Downtown

* * *

Danny had several scorch marks in his outfit after ten minutes of fighting Jinx, Gizmo, and Skulker. The Midnight Latte was in ruins at this point as well…along with most of the surrounding block. "Okay, time for Plan D," Danny muttered to himself in a slight panic, "Making up plan D as I go." He had a pretty good idea what it felt like to be a duck in a shooting gallery by this point. "_No wonder Sam always ranted and Tucker and me about the unethical treatment of artificial animals_," the halfa mentally grimaced.

"You're not so tough Phanturd; I don't know how you got to be public ghost enemy number one with your pathetic skills," Gizmo jeered as he fired more lasers at the frantically dodging halfa.

"Don't underestimate him whelp," Skulker growled as he launched more rockets at his prey, "The ghost child tends to turn fights around at the last minute."

"That's why Jinx is running interference," Gizmo grinned sadistically as he watched the aforementioned sorceress hex everything within five feet of their target. "She's good at keeping people off-balance." Danny phased through the ground and came up behind Jinx, ghost ray at the ready. The pink haired sorceress back flipped over the halfa, barely dodging his attack, and blasting him with twin pink hexes. Danny groaned as his pants fell, revealing yellow duckie boxers. The halfa quickly shot into the air, holding his pants up with one hand, as he fired more ghost rays at Skulker.

"Apparently," Skulker drawled as he erected another ghost shield to block a ghost ray, returning the favor with a sadistic grin having just shot the ghost teen out of the air with a shot of his own.

"Gah," Danny grunted as he hit the ground, only to cry out in pain as Gizmo's laser fire hit his prone form. Jinx only added to his suffering by hexing him into unconsciousness and out of his ghost form.

"That was hardly a challenge," Skulker grumbled as Gizmo handed him a small cube. He was disappointed about just how easy it had been to take out his prey. There was no sport to it!

"Yeah, but he'll be in good shape in a couple of months," Jinx winked conspiratorially, getting only a slight gleam in the hunter's eyes as a response. She pulled out her communicator, making her orange-haired friend's face appear on the view screen. "Alright Mammoth, tag him and bag him so we can head back to HQ."

"Sounds good to me," her over-muscled companion smirked, "The Headmaster's gonna have kittens when he sees who we took down."

"If the snot licker gets loose, I think we can arrange for some more upgrades," Gizmo explained to the ghost hunter.

"The hunt better be worth it next time, whelp," Skulker grumbled as he flew off, turning invisible after fifty feet. Mammoth sneered as he lifted Danny and stuck him in a cube that had been specifically designed to counter ghost powers. He then picked up the bound halfa as the troika left for the HIVE Academy.

Nobody noticed as the rain started to fall.

* * *

Jump City, Suburbs

* * *

The rain fell, putting out the roaring flames of the raging golem that had threatened the city mere moments ago.

"Wow…that was pretty anti-climactic," Specter shrugged, watching the ashes crumble under the rain.

"Better than the whole city going up in flames," Cyborg chuckled as he clapped the halfa on the back. It was at this point the elemental brothers rejoined the Titans with a flash of lightning and roar of thunder.

"Something doesn't feel right," Raven commented, her features set into a frown.

"What do you mean Raven," Starfire asked the Gothic Titan, "The monster has been vanquished and the city is safe from further harm!"

"Yeah, we so kicked that monster's butt," Beast Boy boasted.

"Last I checked, those brothers kicked that monster's butt," Cyborg smirked, betting a groan from the emerald teen. He then spotted the approaching form of the Boy Wonder. "Yo Robin, what went down on your end?"

"Slade," Robin growled, "He orchestrated this whole mess…why are you looking at the city Raven?"

"Something feels off, and I can't tell quite what it is," the violet haired girl responded, never once glancing away from the city she helped protect.

"Just remember who saved you all, green one," Lightning declared.

"I think that might be evened out by you making that thing to star-," Robin declared, only to be cut off as his communicator started beeping. With a flick of his wrist, he opened it and scanned the information that he was receiving. His eyes widened at what he read, pieces fitting together into a horrible picture already. "There's trouble downtown, the HIVE and a heavily armored man with a flaming mohawk attacked the Midnight Latte."

"No," Raven breathed, feeling an icy claw grip her heart, knowing exactly what had happened without being told.

Specter gasped in shock, "Danny."


	9. The Rising: Moving Changes

A/N: Hey y'all, been a while since the last time you've seen an update. I'm not going to make a lot of excuses this time around, simple fact of the matter is that I was heavily distracted, especially with my muse whispering sweet nothings to me about a Sonic the Hedgehog/X-Men Evolution crossover like none other…that I know of at least. The premise is that a student that is a bit on the short side, almost a dwarf really, has their X-gene end up activating and transforming them into what looks like Sonic…in a world where the Sonic series never existed! This will make the mutant an automatic rival of Quicksilver due to the speed power. The plan would be to have the new guy eventually learning many of Sonic's abilities, even while bemoaning being a four foot tall walking, talking, blue hedgehog. Definitely the short end of the stick mutation wise. Add into that the evolution crystals that Magneto used on Asteroid M acting like the Chaos Emeralds to the Sonic clone, and I'd like to think the story would have some potential, at least on the originality front for how to, in essence, get Sonic into the Marvel universe. On another note, however, I can sincerely say that I'm not happy with ffn's decision to wipe out all of the MA content, especially since the line can get very blurry with 'explicit violence' being one of the factors for that rating. The other half of it is pretty straight forward, although I do believe that nudity would be a horrendous gray area on that front. This does, unfortunately, mean that a lot of quality fanfics will be taken down. One of my fears is that 'In Flight' by gabriel blessing will be one of those due to one particular scene in one chapter, anybody who has read it probably knows what I'm talking about on that one. Anyway, I think I've babbled enough since I'm certain that all of you are wanting to read a chapter you've been waiting four months for. I'll try not to disappoint with the content, but I am expecting more than a few flames in the near future for not posting a chapter of epic length for the amount of time all of you have been waiting. Please read, review, and give me a head start before you bring out the torches and pitchforks!

* * *

Jump City, Downtown

* * *

The street in front of the site of the Midnight Latte was pitted with craters and scarred with still faintly glowing holes and trenches when the Teen Titans arrived two minutes after Robin got the call. The teens were amazed that they hadn't heard anything as they took in the sheer number of damaged and destroyed buildings, the most heavily damaged being within sixty feet of the pile of rubble that was once the popular café. The emergency response teams had already been on site for nearly twenty minutes before the teen heroes' appearance on the scene, picking through the rubble in an attempt to find anybody that may be trapped underneath. Police were already taking eyewitness statements in order to determine exactly what happened here.

"I don't get it Robin," Cyborg protested as the assembled teens arrived on the scene of the crime, "There shouldn't be a jamming device out there that's able to block our system! I designed it myself to make sure that I would get an alert if it was being jammed just to be on the safe side!"

The Boy Wonder glowered at the new information the cybernetic teen gave him. "Somebody went through a lot of trouble to set this up. This attack was timed so that we'd be across the city and unable to send backup to this situation. High-grade jammers like that aren't cheap either. There is no way that this was a coincidence." A police officer wearing the standard white uniform of the JCPD with platinum blonde hair and piercing green eyes turned to the voices of the two teens and immediately scowled.

"Where the hell have ya kids been," the cop whose badge identified him as Lieutenant O'Hara yelled as he stormed up to Robin, "We've been tryin' ta get ahold a ya for the last twenty minutes!"

"We were wrapping up the case that started on the bridge Lieutenant," Robin responded calmly, trying to calm down the angry officer, "Slade got involved and used the two from the bridge to make a monster made out of flames in an attempt to destroy the cit. It took us until a few minutes to get the call, most likely because of a high grade jammer."

"Bullshit," Lieutenant O'Hara shouted as he jabbed his finger into the chest of the unflinching boy detective, "Ya honestly expect me to believe that Slade attacked at jus' the right time ta allow for another group ta attack another part of the city! I'm more inclined ta believe that ya kids set this up jus' to cause as much property damage as ya can without gettin' in trouble for it!"

"_There's one in every city,"_ Robin thought to himself with a sigh as he pressed onward to get information for the irate officer. "What group attacked here?"

"Yer pals in that HIVE group that ya kids put away a couple a months back attacked 'hero'," O'Hara answered with a sneer, "Had some help too from some guy in a tricked-out tin suit with green fire for hair, any clue who the new guy is?"

"Skulker, the ghost master of the hunt," Raven answered getting a disdainful snort for the lieutenant that she deigned to ignore. The violet haired teen's brow furrowed as the puzzle pieces started to fall together in her mind. "The last time he was scene was fighting Phantom in Amity Park though." The picture her mind was forming was not good, and judging from the gasp that Specter and Starfire both gave they agreed with that thought.

"So, a quote unquote 'ghost' teamed up with the HIVE to bag a target," O'Hara drawled, "Next yer gonna tell me that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy all got together and got sloshed, makin' a disease that took out a lotta people in the process." The surly cop chuckled at his own joke.

"You don't think the bubonic plague made itself, do you," Raven retorted with a deadpan. She took vindictive pleasure in seeing the cop stop laughing to gawk at her. "Although, I thought that secret was a bit better kept." The dark titan sent a withering glare Beast Boy's way to keep the changeling silent.

Robin decided to get the officer's attention back onto him before an argument broke out. "Any idea what they were after," the Boy Wonder probed. The lieutenant gladly took the obvious distraction.

"Yeah, they bagged the kid they were fightin'," O'Hara responded, regaining his composure. Robin had to school his expression to keep the small pit of apprehension in his stomach from becoming obvious in his face. He just knew that he wasn't going to like what he heard next. "Had white hair and green eyes, black and white jumpsuit…know 'im?"

"Phantom," Robin cursed as he heard Specter gasp again, "Just after we got his name cleared too. He warned us that he had enemies that were still after him. Apparently that fight he had with Specter got attention from ours."

"Why didn't he try ta get ahold of ya," O'Hara smirked, "I'm pretty sure that sound attack of his woulda brought ya runnin'."

"He's already stated that he doesn't want anything to do with crime fighting anymore," Robin scowled, getting tired of the officer's attitude, "But he has enough experience with it to keep from causing more damage than necessary."

"This was the bare minimum," O'Hara sneered disbelievingly, waving his arm behind him to indicate all the damage that was caused by the battle. "There has to be at least forty million in damages, not to mention the thirty-two civilians that got injured getting' caught in the middle of this mess, and you have the _stones_ to call this the bare minimum damage!"

"If he'd used his sonic attack there'd be a lot more," Robin countered heatedly, feeling some sense of irony for defending the one that he was so willing to persecute just a week ago, "I saw the tape of his final battle in Amity Park. It shattered windows ten blocks away, ground zero was officially declared a disaster area."

"Yer kiddin' me, aren't ya," O'Hara edged nervously, most of the venom gone from his voice at that statement as his face paled. The Boy Wonder mentally smirked at the reaction.

"A sonic attack that can be heard clearly from miles away will cause a lot of damage up close, take Punk Rocker for instance," Robin shrugged, secretly enjoying the lieutenant's face paling further.

"Phantom will get out of this, won't he Robin," Specter implored earnestly. The Boy Wonder was about to comfort her when O'Hara opened his mouth, much to the teen's chagrin.

"I wouldn't be so sure, those HIVE kids knew exactly how to take 'im down," O'Hara commented earning a scowl from Robin, "I'm pretty sure they'll have tech to keep 'im there 'til they're done doin' whatever with 'im." He stated the words in as dispassionate a manner as he could, but almost instantly regretted his words when Specter collapsed to her knees, a vacant look on her face as the news crashed down on her. A single tear rolled down her face and fell down to the rain-soaked ground as she whispered her thoughts.

"No, Danny….why does everything have to go wrong for you?"

* * *

Jump City, Fenton Apartment, Two Days Later

* * *

Are you sure about this Danielle?

"Yes dad. I think that with what happened, I'd be safer moving in with the Titans."

Alright, I'll dill out the forms so that it looks like you're switching to being home-schooled due to the disappearance of your brother.

"Thanks dad, this means a lot to me."

I'll see what I can do to find Danny on my end and forward my findings to Robin. Whatever this HIVE is, they're bound to have left a paper trail.

"Thanks again dad…I love you."

Love you too Danielle. Click. Beep…Beep…Beep.

"Did the inquiring of your parental figure for permission to leave the educational system and live with us proceed in a favorable manner Specter," Starfire inquired, peeking her head into Dani's bedroom door.

Dani folded up her cell phone and turned in her seat on her plush queen sized bed to look at her friend questioningly. "Um," the halfa floundered, having to sort out what the Tamaranean meant to say. "Oh! Yeah, my dad was alright with it. He's also going to see if he can find anything out about the HIVE."

"Glorious," Starfire exclaimed cheerfully as she quickly flew into the bedroom to gather Dani in a bone-crushing hug. "Perhaps later we could engage in the hair-braiding ritual and go to the mall of shopping!" Her jubilant expression dimmed somewhat as Dani phased out of her arms, gasping for breath.

"Geez Star, a girl's gotta breath you know," Dani gasped, trying desperately to gather air into her heaving lungs.

"I am most sorry, friend Specter," the Tamaranean responded, sheepishly grinning and rubbing the back of her head. "Sometimes I forget the skeletal-muscular density of the indigenous species of this planet tends to be substantially lower than that of my own." Dani blinked at that statement, trying to puzzle out the meaning before eventually giving up.

"Oookay…well, I've still got a few more things to pack up before we head to the tower. Hopefully Danny won't mind if I pack his stuff too," Dani commented.

"I'm sure he won't mind," Cyborg assured the halfa as he stuck his head into the room, only to pause as he took the view in. "Damn ghost girl," the titanium titan whistled, "with how much ass you kick in video games I never woulda thought your room look so…"

"Chic, stylin', totally vogue," the halfa offered.

"Girly," Cyborg chuckled. Dani's bedroom walls were painted a soft blue with pink hearts scattered across them almost haphazardly. Couple that with the boy band posters, the queen size, four-poster bed with a canary yellow comforter and canopy, and_ way _too many pastel color pillows to be legal and you get almost the picture perfect symbol of teenie boppers. The only things off about the scene were the well-used dart board with a picture of Justin Bieber taped to it, full of holes of course, and a few tech pieces like a Fenton Thermos and what looked like six cubes the size of his fist.

Starfire and Dani huffed daintily and indignantly at Cyborg's statement. "Well excuuuse me for liking to keep up with the latest trends," the halfa scoffed. "Come on Starfire, let's start packing my clothes." With a nod, Starfire followed Dani into another doorway that led to what had to be a walk-in closet, pausing only long enough to grab a cube.

"**Dude!** Did anybody know that Phantom's got enough guns to take on half the city? !"

"Say what now," Cyborg asked, turning to Danny's room. Dani came sprinting out of the walk-in closet and grabbed another cube.

"Beast Boy! Don't touch any of that; some of it's still experimental," Dani shouted as she barged into the elder halfa's room in an attempt to stop the changeling. The cybernetic teen followed her, curiosity piquing his nano-circuitry and certainly not any pressing need to get away from the giggling coming from the younger halfa's closet.

Now that would be just ridiculous.

Cyborg could only whistle appreciatively at what he saw before him. "Damn, ghost boy's packin' heat!" The walls, what little of them could be seen, were a midnight purple and blue mix with scattered points of white that looked almost as if they would glow in the dark, giving the feel of being under the nighttime sky. The reason that those walls couldn't be seen clearly was because of the sheer number of guns and gadgets that were lining the walls. Cyborg could recognize quite a few of them on sight from the schematics that were sent his way, but those that he couldn't he chalked up to being Danny originals. It even looked like a new schematic had been drawn up on the table with various parts covering the bed. "We packin' this up too ghost girl? It would definitely help to have some finished products handy so I could know what I'm doing wrong tryin' to build the ghost tech myself."

"That's the plan," Dani chirped as she tossed the cube in her hand to the titanium titan, "The other plan is for Beast Boy to play video games on the seventy-eight inch wide screen high-def TV while the rest of us pack." She sent a glare the shapeshifter's way in attempt to scare him into submission.

"Come on, why can't I help? I swear I won't break anything!" Attempt failed.

"It's either that or you play dress-up doll for Star while packing away my clothes," the halfa declared matter-of-factly, her statement only punctuated by a high pitched giggle coming from her room.

"Uh…where's the TV again," Beast Boy inquired. Dani pointed to the living room, smirking as the green skinned boy bolted for the TV.

"Now that's just dirty pool," Cyborg chuckled as he examined the cube in his hands before his human eye widened in realization. "Wait a minute, is this a hyper-dimensional mass storage device," the cybernetic teen gushed, almost girlishly the ghost girl would say if asked later.

"If by that you mean is it the Fenton Crammer and able to fit a lot of stuff in it that is bigger than the Crammer itself is," here Dani paused as Cyborg nodded excitedly, "then, yes, it's exactly what you said. Think you could pack all of the ghost hunting gear and schematics into it while I make sure my clothes actually get packed and not just worn by Star? Or do I need to call Raven over to put a leash on you?"

"Nah, I got this dawg," the cybernetic teen snorted, taking the ribbing in stride, "But shouldn't just one of these be able to fit the whole apartment?"

"Well, yeah, but then it would be a hassle to reorganize all of it," Dani replied off-handedly. That earned a hearty chuckle from Cyborg as she left to go check on Star, at least fairly sure that Beast Boy would keep for a while. The clone waited for an especially ear-splitting squee to die down before entering the closet, silently amazed that most of it was packed despite all the giggling. "So, how's the packing been going Star?"

A predatory look crossed the Tamaranean's face that would have sent any intelligent male and quite a few females running in fear, trying to hide their wallets lest they fall victim to 'The Look™'. Dani saw the gleam in the redhead's eyes, and returned it with one of her own. No words needed to be said between the two, an understanding had been reached. They both knew that they had found a sister in shopping raids, a fellow mall rat, a camaraderie that only those that could spend hours, if not days, going from store to store trying on new clothes if given half a chance could feel.

Raven and even the clerks of such stores shuddered as the feeling of a true meeting of kindred spirits that could only be described as unholy happened.

"It goes well friend Specter," Starfire chirped as she put the last article of clothing neatly into the Fenton Crammer before handing it to Dani. "You appear to have much knowledge about the earthly fashion trends," the redhead commented almost off-handedly.

"Well, I _was_ one of the most popular girls in school," Dani replied in much the same way, "I just _had_ to have all of the latest trends to be that way. Most people just don't understand how much a person's clothes say about them."

"Please, do inform me of all of the details friend Specter," Starfire inquired with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, "Perhaps we could discourse on this topic of conversation in fine detail as we continue storing your worldly belongings into these storage and transportation vessels?"

"Now you're speakin' my language…kind of," Dani replied as the two left the walk in closet and grabbed another Fenton Crammer. Cyborg felt a shudder go down his metallic framework in the next room.

* * *

Jump City, Titan's Tower, Specter's Room

* * *

An hour had passed since the teen's had finished packing everything from her old apartment into the Fenton Crammers and traveled back to Titan's Tower to help the ghost girl finish the moving process. Cyborg had bowed out, saying that he needed to get a better look at all of the gear that had been taken from Danny's bedroom. The only thing he left behind was the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick. Starfire had also left the group, wishing to watch the 'World of Fungus' documentary that had become one of her favorite shows. In their place was Raven, who had offered to help by using her telekinesis to help move the heavier items as they were pulled out of the Fenton Crammer.

"Bright yellow with a pale blue carpet," the goth teen deadpanned as she noticed the canary yellow walls and the baby blue plush carpet that covered the floor. The flat look that she was giving the halfa only accentuated her tone of voice.

"What about them," Dani responded as she set aside the Crammers that had her clothes and everything else that had been in Danny's room aside.

"They're just so girly, and you act more like a boy than a girl," Beast Boy stated, an impish smile on his face.

Dani turned a baleful glare the emerald changeling's direction, her eyes glowing white with a glowing white ball in her hand. "They're my favorite colors," the ghost girl growled menacingly, "Got a problem with it?" The shapeshifter let out a girlish squeal and hid behind Raven, completely missing the dark girl's approving smirk at the intimidation tactics. It would feel…nice to have somebody else able to scare the two idiots when they crossed lines. "Good," the halfa chirped as all the menace and glowing left her slight frame. Beast Boy shuddered at how quickly the girl's mood changed as she started pulling stuff out of the Crammers.

A comfortable, if completely terrifying for the only boy in the room, silence descended on the trio as they started to move furniture around. Raven lifted an eyebrow at the four-poster bed with canary yellow drapes as it was moved into place on the side of the room opposite of the bed. Beast Boy laughed as the dart board with Justin Bieber's picture was placed right by the door. Raven shook her head at the dresser and wardrobe that were placed in one corner of the room, and both founding Titans sweat-dropped at the large desk with a vanity mirror, complete with more different kinds of make-up than Robin had bottles of hair gel.

Raven was the one that noticed when a shudder violently ran through the ghost girl's frame, almost making her drop the Crammer that she had in her hand. She tried to hide it, but her gaze traveled to the East, as though she had heard something and was trying to see what it was. "Is something wrong, Specter," Raven inquired.

"Yes-no…I don't know," the halfa sighed, a slight quaver of pain in her voice as she reached into the device in her hand and started pulling out an assortment of pastel colored pillows that she threw on her bed one after another. "Ever since Danny got captured, I've been getting these weird vibes, and I don't know what's causing them." Beast Boy's ears perked up, listening closely to the conversation, even as he absent mindedly picked up a Crammer and started running his hands over its surface.

"What do these vibes feel like," the dark titan asked the halfa before her, her curiosity piqued by the direction that this conversation was going in. Raven kept her distance however, already having a good idea of what these vibes felt like from the fear her empathy was picking up.

Dani took the last pillow out of her Crammer and flopped down on her bed, slouching over with her feet hanging off the sides and her face in her hands. "It feels like somebody's stabbing my head over and over again, but it feels muted too; kinda like it's not really happening to me," the halfa responded, fear cracking her voice slightly, "I'm sorry if I'm not explaining it very well."

"It sounds almost like a meta-physical connection through the astral plane," the goth declared, deciding to continue when Dani leveled a flat look at her from in between her fingers. "There are rituals that can bond one person's psyche to another's. This bond is usually used to allow the two individuals to feel what the other is feeling, no matter the difference, but the feeling usually is not muted in the slightest. Twin telepathy is another example of this meta-physical bond that two individuals can share. The most extreme example of this that I can think of is the tale of the Corsica brothers. In this tale, no matter what you did to one brother, it was the other brother that felt all of the pain."

"Okay, I'm pretty sure I don't fall under that category," the ghost girl replied, slightly taken back by Raven's explanation.

"It's just one possible explanation," Raven shrugged. She quickly decided to change the subject when she felt Dani's depression start a slow spiral. The violet haired teen spotted the baseball bat in one corner of the room and decided to comment on it. "Why do you have a bat in here?"

"Oh, this," the halfa questioned, grabbing onto Raven's distraction like a drowning man would a life preserver as she grabbed the bat in question and turned the label to the sorceress. "It's the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick. Cyborg left it behind while he took all the other gadgets to his workshop."

"It's a baseball bat," the dark teen deadpanned.

"Yeah, but it's a baseball bat with Fenton on it," Dani smiled, enjoying the groan that Raven let loose at that one statement as she put the bat back where it was. It was at that moment, as Dani reached into the Crammer to pull more stuff out, that the violet haired sorceress decided that the Fenton Family had crossed the line from genius to insanity….repeatedly. Beast Boy laughed at the halfa's humor, even as his gaze travelled down to a button on the side of the Fenton Crammer. The ghost girl's laughter died as a somber expression settled on her face as she pulled a photo out of her Crammer.

Wondering what could change the ghost girl's mood so quickly, Raven decided to look over the girl's shoulder. "Family picture," Raven commented, taking in all of the laughing faces…especially the grinning face of a large man in an orange jumpsuit, apparently tangled up in glowing blue fishing line, even as she noted that Dani seemed to be absent from the photo.

"Yeah, this was taken about two months before the explosion," Dani choked back a sob, a tear traveling down her cheek, "Right around the time that I was created."

"So you never ever knew your family," Beast Boy commented, taking a closer look at the button he found as a look of unbridled curiosity crossed his face, "I mean Danny's family- no wait…I'll just shut up now."

"Might be a good idea, chlorbag," the dark titan quipped, sending a sympathetic look Dani's way as the halfa's shoulders slumped.

"Dude, I'm so not a chlorbag," the shapeshifter retorted, his head snapping up to look Raven in the eye, even as his finger got close to the button again, "I'm a milnip wusserloop! There's a difference."

"And that would be," Raven responded with a knowing look, her eyebrow arched.

"Uh, well I – you see," Beast Boy stuttered, trying to answer the question and drawing a blank. Raven's triumphant smirk was instantly wiped off her face to be replaced by shock as the emerald shapeshifter pressed the button, releasing all of Dani's clothes and buried the entire room in them, some even spilling out into the hall.

Neither Dani nor Beast Boy were brave enough to ask whether or not the 'eep' they had heard had come from the violet haired sorceress.


	10. The Fallen: Transfer Student

A/N: Hey y'all, surprised by the quick posts? That is because this is the point when the story diverges and intertwines with itself. If you look at the chapter title, you might notice that last chapter was 'The Rising' and this chapter is 'The Fallen'. That is because those are what is going to denote who the main character of the chapter is. I'm pleased to announce that, even though I realized it rather belatedly, Elegy of a Fallen Hero has been put onto the C2 Crystal Shards by Christopher Robin R2. Thanks for adding this to your C2, I honestly appreciate it. Before any of you get upset, this chapter is meant to be short, and is in fact three to four times as long as it was when I originally wrote it. I hope that you like the direction that I took the scene in, because it was actually very fun to write and I've never seen that particular plot point play out quite like this before.

To answer the review from Kindered Spirits (naughty anonymous reviewer, not giving me a way to directly answer you off screen): Raven's 'eep' was my attempting to add a final hint of humor to the scene. 'Eep' could easily be replaced with any sound of surprise, but I found that 'eep' would have the largest effect since it is completely out of character for her to do such a thing. As I said though, Dani and Beast Boy, the only two witnesses to this, are nowhere _near_ brave enough to call her out on it.

Now, rather than bore all of you with a lot of babbling when you want to find out what happens next, I'll just get on with the next chapter of the story. Please, read and review.

* * *

Jump City, Outskirts

* * *

Slade, still wearing his old man costume from minutes before, stepped out of the shadows of the trees that hadn't been pulled up over the course of the battle with his creation. "Well, well, who would have guessed that those two capable of something like this?" Slade stopped before the pile of ashes that was once Fire.

"And who would have thought that the 'heroes' could be so heartless?" The armored villain carefully dug through the pile of ash and uncovered the form of a soot-coated girl that appeared to be around thirteen.

"They may have cast you aside, Fire, but you still have some use to me." Slade picked the girl up bridal style and returned to the shadows, to create plans with these new variables that were presenting themselves to him.

* * *

Hive HQ

* * *

"Good work students," Brother Blood smirked gleefully, relishing in the troika's capture of the young halfa, "I do believe that this extracurricular project more than makes up for your previous failures." The three teens' expressions had relief readily apparent on them. It appeared as if the Headmaster was very pleased with their work. And why wouldn't he be? It wasn't often that villains got the chance to thoroughly corrupt a hero and bring him into their line of thinking.

"Now, if I'm not mistaken, you do have some classes to attend while I review Mister Fenton's application." The troika scurried off, frightened by the greasy smile that the Headmaster had plastered across his face. Even as malevolent as they were, they did not want to be present for what the grinning Headmaster was about to do to the teen before him.

* * *

Unknown Location, Presumably Hive HQ

* * *

"Ugh, my head," I groaned as I slowly came to. The last thing I remembered was fighting those two kids around my age and Skulker….

Skulker!

My eyes bolted open as I turned my head left and right, trying to find that creepy hunter. I didn't see the power-suit wearing ghost, but I saw that I was in a room with possibly the single ugliest design I had ever seen. Bright yellow hexagons all over the walls, ceiling, and floor? What, was this supposed to be some sort of bee hive? And why was it so dark in here? It was about then that I realized that I was bolted pretty securely against a chair.

Well, as securely as you can hold someone that can go intangible that is.

When I decided to make my daring escape and turn intangible, I screamed in pain. "AAHHHHH!"

"Ah, I see that you've noticed a security feature within that chair, Mister Fenton," a voice echoed from the shadows. I stopped trying to turn intangible, finally getting that excruciating pain to stop and tried to find the owner of the voice. "You'll find that until I finished going over your application to this school, you will be a _very_ captive audience." I could almost _hear_ the slime coming off his voice.

"Great, I lose who crazed-up fruit loop of a nemesis and captured by an even bigger crazed-up fruit loop," I groaned in annoyance. Seriously, can I never catch a break? It's not like I ask for very much! Now I've got sort of evil recruiter trying to get me to join him! I don't know what the hell I did in a past life, but I apparently pissed somebody up there off _**royally**_!

"Quite," the voice drawled, apparently upset at my description of him. Good, since I'm really upset about being captured by somebody! Beats getting skinned and mounted, I guess, but it's the principle damn it! I saw a flash of red to my right and turned to it. What appeared to be a balding old man with his hair swept into twin points on either side of his head wearing white and gold robes stepped out of the shadows in what he obviously thought was a very dramatic fashion. "My name is Brother Blood, Daniel Fenton, but you may call me Headmaster during your tenure at this prestigious school." Hmm, adding in knowledge of my full name without ever having met me before…I have to give ominous points for that one. This guy had to have been in the biz for _years_ to pull that off so casually. I only had one reaction to his introduction, however.

I started howling with laughter.

As he sent a glare my way, I decided to answer his unasked question. "Seriously, _Brother _Blood? ! You've been in the villain business for _how_ long and you haven't bothered to pick a more menacing name? ! And here I was honestly worried for a minute!" My laughter abruptly stopped as his eyes started to glow red and I felt a stabbing sensation in my mind.

"I will not tolerate such behavior," Brother Blood declared fiercely, "You **will** be a model student, Mister Fenton, and you will _enjoy_ it by the time I have finished reviewing you application!" The stabbing sensation in my brain got stronger as his face got closer to mine, the spit flying from his mouth because of his shouting hitting my face as I cried out in pain. Ewww, some of that went into my mouth! That's even more disgusting than backwash!

"I can guarantee it, Mister Fenton," Brother Blood finished with a superior smirk on his face. It was about then that I passed out from the stabbing in my head.

I woke up again sometime later. Without some way to tell what time it is, I honestly couldn't say how long I'd been out. I groaned as I became more aware of the pounding headache that I was having. It felt like someone had taken a meat tenderizer to my head! I had to get out of here!

"Nice to see that you are awake again Mister Fenton," Brother Blood drawled. I groaned at the sound of that voice. I think I preferred it when Vlad was my nemesis, at least then I'd have witty banter going back and forth and not just be in a lot of pain whenever I tried to be snarky. "What have we learned so far over the course of this interview?"

I couldn't resist an opening that big, I really couldn't. "That you seriously need to get a cat and stop trying to turn kids into cultists, you wacko pedophile," I responded in a pained voice, looking up into my captor's eyes defiantly. Oops, there's that glare again. Wait, this time it looks positively murderous. Looks like I might have just pissed all over his ego.

Good.

"Apparently you have not learned anything at all, Mister Fenton, if you continue to insult someone who holds your life in their hands," the wacko pedophile growled dangerously, "And leave Mr. Bigglesworth out of this!" Okay, totally didn't see that one coming.

"Wouldn't be the first time, _Mr. Evil_, and sure as hell won't be the last," I shot back. Wow, I fell back into basic hero banter _way_ too fast for my liking. Oh well, time to go in for the kill. "Just tell me one thing: Is your cat bald? That's the only reason I can see for you wearing such a cheap wig!"

"You will pay dearly for that Mister Fenton," Brother Blood spat venomously as his eyes glowed a bright red again. My world dissolved into pain again as the mental stabbing started up again.

When I came to again I decided to play possum to try and gather myself up again. This guy obviously uses mental attacks, and I can tell that they are starting to wear me down. I had to make my mind better able to withstand attacks like that after the incident with Freakshow, and that effort is paying off in spades here.

"Well, well, Mister Fenton, I must commend you on being able to resist my mental probing to this point," Brother Blood applauded me mockingly. This is just his version of _probing_! I'd hate to see a full on mental assault if that's the case. "I really must find out who made you so resilient to mental attacks so I can thank them, before I crush them that is."

I try to keep playing possum as long as I can. Maybe if I do that for long enough he'll go away for a few minutes…I hope.

"You know that I can hear your thoughts, don't you Mister Fenton," the old villain drawled, "I knew the very instant that you started to wake up."

Dammit! No use playing possum now. I raise my head and glare at the whack job in front of me.

"Such a dark look, Mister Fenton," Brother Blood declared, almost giddily I'd say if the thought didn't creep me out, "You might just have a future in this school after all!" He chuckled darkly as my glare grew fiercer in response. "Now, who gave you such mental fortitude?"

"Blame Freakshow and Samantha Manson," I offered, surprised that the words had come out of my mouth and unable to stop what I said next. "Of course, you'd have a hard job crushing Miss Manson, she died the day I stopped being a hero." Why the hell did I give this sicko anything? Is he getting to me more than I thought?

"A pity," the cult leader declared almost absent-mindedly before he zeroed in on the first name that I gave. "Freakshow…wasn't he the fellow that ran that circus Gothapalooza," the Headmaster (no get that thought out of your head RIGHT NOW Danny!) inquired, "He didn't seem like much to me."

"He isn't, unless he has that ghost controlling cane of his," I offered freely, once again surprised that the words were passing my mouth before I could stop them. Okay, I'm getting _very_ worried about this all of a sudden. "I made sure to destroy that by the way; can't let something that can make me dance to anyone's tune stay intact, can I?" The crazed-up fruit loop actually _laughed_ at that! It looked like he even _agreed_ with my action and words! I think I might have died a little bit inside at that…well, a little bit more than I already am at least. "You might have some trouble getting to him, however. Last I heard, the Guys in White took him into custody for ecto-crimes," I declared. Come on Danny, say _**something**_ that is more like you and not like a doll talking because their drawstring got pulled! I shrugged as I continued with that train of thought, wincing at how tight whatever was keeping me in place was. "Good luck storming a heavily fortified government facility just to _thank_ that whack job. I might even write to you while you're in federal prison." Okay, that sounded quite a bit better. Wait…why does it feel like I'm smirking? And why did my words come out as condescending?

Oh no. Please tell me what I think is happening really isn't happening!

"Touching," Brother Blood drawled as his eyes glowed red again, making me start screaming in pain again. The look on his face just screamed that he was very pleased with himself…that or he was getting off on my screams of pain. Why did some part of me actually applaud this sicko's actions?

Oh no. No no no nonononononononoNO!

If anything the smirk on his face grew even more self-satisfied as I started panicking mentally. "Everybody falls to the screening process eventually Mister Fenton. It's just a matter of time for you as well." My screams of agony were drowned out, even to my own ears, by the Headmaster's cackling.

"And unfortunately for you, Mister Fenton, you have a subsumed second personality in your head that makes for just the _perfect_ backdoor to get past your mental defenses!"

I screamed myself hoarse as I blacked out again.

When I woke again, it was to see the Headmaster standing over me, a caring smile on his face. "Your application has been approved Mister Fenton," the Headmaster smiled at me congenially, "Are you ready to join your fellow classmates here at the Hive Academy?"

"Yes, Headmaster," I replied, a smile playing at my lips as I looked into the eyes of the man before me.

The restraints holding me down popped open with a series of clicks, thuds, and audible hisses. You may need to take several remedial and make-up classes to catch up with your fellow students, Mister Fenton," the Headmaster smirked proudly as his gaze met mine fully, "But I have full faith that you will make a valuable addition to this academy."

I slowly stood from my seat, rubbing at my wrists absent-mindedly, my head tilting downwards to hide my eyes in the shadows of my bangs, yet allowing my malicious sneer to be seen plainly. When he saw the look on my face, the Headmaster's smirk widened into a full blown grin. "Thanks for having me, Headmaster," I stated, allowing the familiar white rings to pass over me, even though they looked a little more green and red than I remember. Shrugging that thought off, I snap my head up to look the man before me straight in the eye. "But please, Headmaster, call me Geist." The Headmaster nodded approvingly at my new name, taken from the malevolent spirits known as poltergeists.

I smiled darkly at thoughts of what I could do now, even as I noticed the twin pools of crimson in my faint reflection on the dimly lit yellow walls of the academy that would be my new home.


End file.
